I received a traffic ticket in July 2012. I disputed the ticket. After reading articles on this site I decided to write to the officer requesting disclosure to prepare for traffic court. I pulled out the ticket and discovered that the officer did not sign the ticket. I've read posts on this forum indicating that this renders the ticket invalid.
Is it appropriate to write to the officer requesting he cancel the ticket given the lack of signature? Or should I prepare for traffic court and raise the issue there?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
If the officer did not sign the older hand written ticket form, ICBC's Ticket Unit will have sent them a letter advising them of this and suggesting that if it is in the public interest they should reserve you with a properly completed ticket. If this is not done, the ticket you have received is not valid and they will not process it.
You may wish to check with the Violation Ticket Center and ask for the status of your dispute. You may also wish to ask for a copy of the original of the ticket. Compare it to the one that you have. If the original now has a signature you should be suspicious that it was signed after the fact, which is not acceptable. You were not served a true copy in that case, and you should raise this prior to entering a plea on the date of your trial. Ask that the matter be dismissed and be prepared to show the court your copy and point out the difference.
If you were handed a printed electronic ticket by the officer, you have the only printed copy. Don't lose it!
You could let the officer know, but this does give him an opportunity to figure things out and reserve you before the trial. In your case, since more than a year has passed from the date of the alleged offence, you can no longer be served as the limitation of action is one year and it wouldn't matter.
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I contacted the ticket violation center and they referred me to ICBC. An ICBC representative asked me to fax a copy of the served ticket. Within a couple of hours of sending the fax, the ticket was cancelled.
I requested a copy of the original which I received this week. In fact, the officer signed the original after serving the ticket which explains why ICBC did not cancel the ticket.
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