Understanding the Legal Requirements

As discussed earlier, there are four different parking sections under the Provincial Offences Act and only one of them will apply to you based on how you requested a trial.

	Trial Requested By
Document Used	Mail	In Person
Parking Ticket	s.17	s.17.1
Notice of Impending Conviction	s.18.1	s.18.1.1

The explanation below will provide references to relevant sections of the Act. However there will not always be four different section references. Sometimes a section will "borrow" the wording from another section. In that case you will only see references to one or two sections instead of four.

---

KARMA:

What goes around comes around. If this site is helping you, please consider giving something back.

---

Commence a Proceeding

Once you have requested a trial, the municipality must "commence a proceeding" against you. This must be done within 75 days of the day of offence (section 17(2) or 18.1(2)). This 75 day requirement is often overlooked by everyone. You should always check the filing date of the documents to see if it was done in time. If not, the proceeding was not commenced correctly and is invalid. In other words, the charge is dead.

What Is A Proceeding?

The municipality will file document(s) with the court and ask the court to schedule your trial. In other words they have started the process of taking you to court for a parking infraction charge.

Sounds ominous doesn't it?! But all it really amounts to is giving the court clerk some paperwork. What documents are used depend on how you were allowed to request a trial (by mail or in person).

Proceeding Where Trial Requested by Mail

If you request a trial by mail, they must file the following with the court within 75 days in order to commence a proceeding (s.17(3) or 18.1(3)):

1. the certificate of parking infraction; and
2. if the parking infraction is alleged against the defendant as owner of a vehicle, evidence of the ownership of the vehicle.

Proceeding Where Trial Requested In Person

If you have to attend in person to request a trial, they only have to file within 75 days (s.17.1(5) and s.18.1.1(2.1)),

1. the certificate of parking infraction.

In this case, while they don't have to submit very much to start the proceeding against you, under section 17.1(7) (which is also referenced under s.18.1.1(2.1)) they do have to provide at trial the following three documents:

1. if the parking infraction is alleged against the defendant as owner of a vehicle, evidence of the ownership of the vehicle;
2. the certificate of parking infraction ; and
3. a copy of the notice of trial (which is the letter you get telling you when your court date is and the location).

Let's look at what these documents are.