‘There’s no recourse for me,’ cries driver whose license was suspended over 13-year-old ticket – she’ll have to pay $445

A DRIVER believes she paid a fine over a decade ago, but city officials said she must pay $445 to keep her license.

The vehicle owner said she had no choice but to fork over hundreds of dollars.

CTV New Toronto

CTV New Toronto

“My driver’s license was suspended because I had an unpaid driving fine,” Christine Coldwell, a driver in a Toronto suburb, told CTV News .

In 2011, Coldwell was pulled over for breaking a road law while turning.

She says that police assigned a ticket for the offense.

Coldwell, an accountant, said she firmly believes she paid the fine and normally would have receipts to prove the payment.

But she only keeps files for ten years before throwing them out.

She had no way to prove her payment of the now-13-year-old fine.

“I’m not disputing the fact that I got a ticket in 2011, I know I did,” she told the station.

“But, I’m pretty sure I paid it.”

Coldwell said she has changed her address on the license five times since she received the traffic fine.

She has also renewed her license since the incident.

However, she said nobody at ServiceOntario, the DMV-like authority in the Canadian territory, has ever brought up the allegedly unpaid fine.

The turning fine was initially $115. Coldwell racked up $49 in late fees.

She also has to pay another $281 to reinstate her license.

“There is no recourse for me. None,” she complained to the station.

“It’s just pay the $445 fine and thank you very much.”

Officials at ServiceOntario allegedly told the driver they were going through their books to find unpaid tickets after a dip in revenue.

How to fight a speeding ticket

According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies to fighting a speeding ticket if it was wrongfully issued.

1. If pulled over and issued a ticket, drivers can argue or dispute a driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, an officer is required to write their opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the ticket was written based on that judgment, it can be contested. An example would be if you were going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because others were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
2. You can dispute the officer’s presentation of evidence. If you were ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal u-turn, you can’t contest that if an officer saw you, but you can call things into court like eyewitnesses, diagrams, or photos.
3. Argue that the ticket was issued by a “mistake of fact.” This is tricky, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver about a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn down that you could not see them.
4. You could say circumstances justified your driving. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver, or avoiding an accident by rapidly changing lanes. However, the argument won’t work if there’s proof you continued to speed after passing.
5. Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been harmed.
6. Consult a traffic attorney, if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there’s a case.

Source: FindLaw

Coldwell wasn’t alone. Another driver told the station he was sent a letter after a 25-year-old traffic fine.

The accountant said the extremely old tickets left drivers feeling like they had no way to fight back against the fine.

She ended up spending the $445 to get her license back.

“I paid it under protest because I had no choice because I need to drive,” she said.