People don’t realize the significant consequences that can flow from having a ticket on your driving record.
Not only does a ticket on your record attract Driver Penalty Points, expose you to the risk of a driving prohibition and potentially cost insurance rate increases, but your driving record is also forever. There is no way to remove something from your record once it is on there unless you successfully fight the underlying allegation.
This can make removing a ticket from your record very difficult.
Why did it end up on your record in the first place?
This involves an assessment of whether or not the ticket has been paid, and if it has, it’s a lot more difficult to remove it. If you paid the ticket, it is considered to be an admission of guilt and can be used against you.
In order to remove the ticket from your record if you’ve already paid, then you have to file an appeal and withdraw the guilty plea in BC Supreme Court.
However, the catch is, an appeal will only be granted in circumstances where the plea was not willingly given. This means that there must be some reason why you pled guilty to the ticket by paying it when you did not intend to do so.
This is unlikely, but it does happen in certain circumstances.
There have also been times when appeals of guilty pleas have been allowed when a person was misinformed of the consequences of pleading guilty. This could have been due to relying on incorrect legal advice or information from a police officer in traffic court that led
them to believe that the ticket wouldn’t have consequences when it did.
Time-sensitive matters
Because these appeals go through the BC Supreme Court, they are time-limited, meaning that an application has to be filed within 30 days of when the guilty plea was entered.
There are ways to apply for an extension, but they are very difficult to obtain and any application for this should be done only after speaking to a lawyer.
What if I didn’t pay?
If the ticket has not been paid, there are more options, but it will depend, again, on why the ticket is on your driving record.
If it is there because you didn’t dispute it, or you disputed but didn’t show up to court, this is what is known as a deemed conviction. So you are basically deemed to have pled guilty, by failing to take the appropriate steps necessary to dispute the ticket.
This type of conviction can be overturned by filing an application, supported by an affidavit with supporting evidence, with the traffic court registry. The application must set out that you had a genuine intention to dispute, but that you couldn’t make it to court and that you have an arguable defence to the ticket.
A Judicial Justice will review this application, and determine whether or not you will be allowed to appeal. If the application is allowed, your ticket will be registered in dispute, a court date will be set and ICBC will remove the ticket from your driving record.
It is very important that you attend the court date otherwise the ticket will end up back on your driving record.
What if I went to court and was found guilty?
If you are found guilty in court and the ticket stays on your record as a result, it can only be removed by successfully appealing the ticket in the BC Supreme Court.
As with an application to withdraw a guilty plea, an appeal of a traffic ticket must be filed within 30 days of when you were convicted in court.
Appealing a guilty verdict is very difficult. It requires you to follow a number of steps, which we have discussed in a previous blog post. It can be expensive and time-consuming, and for this reason, it is advisable to seek legal advice before filing an appeal for a traffic ticket.
The last situation is where there has been an error made by ICBC. In some circumstances, a ticket can be amended or issued to you, in such a matter that would cause it not to appear on your record.
If you receive a ticket issued to you as the owner of the vehicle, for example, a camera ticket, or alternatively, the ticket is amended to reflect the registered owner in court, it is not uncommon for ICBC to fail to see this notation and enter the ticket on your driving record.
These are usually the easiest tickets to remove from your driving record and simply require a letter to ICBC pointing out the error and some follow-up to make sure ICBC does the right thing and takes the ticket off your record, where it is not supposed to be in the first place.
Our office frequently sends these letters to ICBC as a result of these types of errors made on their part if this has happened to you, feel free to contact us and we would be happy to help.