Court Time

Greetings all,

Today I had an appointment with the Ontario Court of Justice. Guess for? A damn parking ticket that my neighbor accidentally gave me. This incident occurred on August 15, 2009 and it takes this long for it to finally get to a court. I think the whole process is long and stupid. I did not pay it and then they send you a letter and I went down to dispute it. You have to fill out some form to set the date. They don't tell you when it is at that point and so back in September I got my notice.

Now what happened is that our parking lot is shared with people who live on the neighboring street. My building uses the half close to us. The other half is private property. I was out on a Friday night and came home probably around 12.30 am. Some one was parked in my spot. We are designated spots and so I decided to park on the other side as there was no where else for me to park. I cannot park on the street after 12, unless I have a permit, otherwise I would get a ticket.

The next day I move my car and notice a ticket on it. I think I was upset and talked to the super about it. Since it was after midnight I didn't want to disturb her over something so trivial as someone taking my spot. She said next time I could call her, regardless of the time. I recorded the license plate the night before and had saved it.

A few days later the neighbor who was responsible for giving me this ticket apologized which I said was okay. I am not sure if he called them saying it was a mistake but I had to go through this process of going to court, which I think was silly. I don't know if the charge could have been dropped.

I took pictures of the parking lot and was getting ready to defend myself. I had saved the license plate number of the offender who was in my spot and put it in my purse so I wouldn't forget it. The next day I checked my purse for it but couldn't find it. I was pretty sure I put it there. I checked my recycling bag where I put my papers in and nothing. I brought it with me to check there and still didn't find it. I have no clue where it went and I was upset because I had saved it for this moment!

I was called up and had my laptop ready to show the pictures and defend myself but then the Ticket Officer must have said something to the guy who calls us up because they basically said my case was dismissed. I was ready to defend myself. What?

I also have another court date to attend and this is what I think is so stupid. I just want my fee reduced as I parked on the street after midnight with no permit. I was out with a friend having coffee so I lost track of time. I went downtown to see if I could arrange for these 2 court appearances to be on the same day and location but they said it couldn't be done. What nonsense. It's bad enough that I had to go out of my way to show myself for something I was innocent of and now I have to go out again. What a waste of time.

I asked the judge about it and they wouldn't do anything about it.

Today it was snowing a lot and so I left an hour early to get there and the drive was terrible as there was so much snow on the roads. I parked on a side street because they only have pay parking there, which again I think is dumb. I had gotten stuck as I was leaving and so I spent about 20 minutes using my pick to dig myself out. It wasn't that bad as it was my right front tire that was stuck since there was so much snow.

The judge was so serious. I am not sure if there was another judge but she was wearing the same outfit as the judge. They both were serious. It's like, dude you guys are just parking ticket judges. You're not dealing with anything really justice worthy. Your dealing with cases where people usually park without a permit or they park in the wrong spot. You have no right to be so serious as this job is really not that important in the grand scheme of things. It's not like you are dealing with murder cases. I'm sure the odd case is more serious but all these infractions are largely minor. Smile for goodness sake!