Splitting up charges may help beat conviction
Roof-mounted off road lights not allowed on public roads
I was ticketed for “validation sticker wrong place” and “fail to surrender valid insurance card.” I had valid insurance, but the card in the car expired one day ago. Likewise, my car did have valid registration. Any advice? Stephen Parker, a licensed paralegal with POINTTS PC in Mississauga, replies:
The Highway Traffic Act requires the plate validation sticker to be affixed in the upper right corner of the rear number plate.
For commercial plates, it’s the upper right corner of the front plate.
The issue with insurance isn’t whether the car was insured or not, but that the driver couldn’t provide a valid insurance card on demand.
If the validation sticker placement is corrected and the new insurance card is presented to the prosecutor, they might be willing to resolve the matter in a couple of ways.
The best way to achieve this would be to retain a licensed paralegal firm to negotiate on your behalf or represent you at trial. Eric Lai adds:
The mislocated plate sticker still proved you had current validation and the officer clearly believed you had valid insurance, otherwise far more serious consequences would have ensued.
Charges aren’t normally withdrawn if you choose the “early resolution” option, just a plea bargain option given.
If you request a trial and present your current insurance card and a photo of the corrected sticker place- ment, one or both minor charges might be dropped.
If you can stand the drudgery, you could even request a separate trial for each offence as a single minor charge up for trial is more apt to be dropped, whereas multiple charges will likely be plea bargained.
They will, of course, make each court date separate, so it’s as inconvenient as possible to fight the two charges.
A friend ticketed for “no insurance card” and “amber light — fail to stop” hired a paralegal who asked for separate trials and, after some pretrial discussion, each charge was subsequently withdrawn.
Are off-road lights mounted on a roof bar legal for on-street use? No. Forward driving lights must be aimed to reduce glare to approaching motorists on public roads. This isn’t possible with roof-mounted off-road lights.
How many headlights can a vehicle legally have? Under S. 62(9) HTA, it’s unlawful to have more than four lit front lamps over 300 candela on a motor vehicle operating on a highway.
You can install more, but can only activate four headlights/fog lights total at any one time. Freelance writer Eric Lai is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. Email your non-mechanical questions to him at wheels@thestar.ca. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.