A Cars forum. AutoBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » AutoBanter forum » Auto newsgroups » Driving
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

City of Toronto cancels 880,000 unpaid parking tickets



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 8th 15, 03:01 AM posted to can.politics, alt.politics.economics, sac.politics,rec.autos.driving, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Frank Arizona
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default City of Toronto cancels 880,000 unpaid parking tickets

Toronto drivers that were issued around 880,000 parking tickets
are getting off scot-free after their cases dragged on too long.

The city’s decision to withdraw the tickets caught politicians
off guard, with Mayor John Tory warning that people not being
held to account “makes a mockery of the parking laws.” And it
laid bare how the courts had for years been unable to keep up
with the number of drivers wanting to fight tickets.

The tickets were quietly pulled on Friday, primarily to abide by
Charter requirements for a trial within a reasonable time.
Ironically, the city stands to save money through the decision,
arguing it would have cost more to go after these drivers than
the tickets were likely to have generated in revenue.

The city moved to a fixed-fine system in 2014, meaning people
can no longer hope for a reduction in court. But the backlog
wiped out last week shines a spotlight on the perverse math of
the old system, in which Toronto expected to lose money when
people issued tickets with small fines chose to fight in court.

Using historic assumptions about conviction rates and the
chances of the fines being reduced, the city believes it would
have grossed an average of not quite $23 on each of the
withdrawn tickets. However, Toronto would have been out about
$26 per ticket in court costs.

The city says the withdrawn tickets had been piling up since
2002 and account for about 3 per cent of the total volume issued
since then.

According to Barry Randell, director of court services for the
city of Toronto, the bulk of the withdrawn tickets were issued
since 2008. He said that the problem accumulated before recent
increases to courtroom space and the number of local justices of
the peace, both of which he thinks should prevent such a backlog
growing again.

But before those improvements, the system couldn’t keep up with
the number of people wishing to fight their tickets. “A lot” of
the tickets were for modest sums that were deemed a lower
priority, Mr. Randell said.


“Part of my responsibility is to do as much as I can to make
sure the serious charges get to court,” he said. “And so one of
the results is that these less serious charges have to wait.”

City staff say that stopping pursuit of these cases has no
effect on the budget because there is a cushion built in for
tickets that may be withdrawn. But the $20-million in revenue
they could theoretically have brought in would have been welcome
in Toronto, which struggled to balance its books this year.

Mr. Tory said the decision to wipe out the old tickets was
pragmatic, given the Charter issue, but he was alarmed that the
problem had been allowed to fester for so long.

“It’s not just about the money, it’s also about the fact it
allows people to kind of get away with just ignoring [tickets],”
he said.

“The notion that it should amount to 880,000 tickets over [13]
years which could have produced gross revenues of $20-million is
an extraordinary thing that shouldn’t be repeated. And that’s
why I hope somebody can look at it, whether it’s from the
auditor’s office or somewhere else, to figure out how we can
improve the procedure to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ty-of-toronto-
cancels-880000-unpaid-parking-tickets/article26242361/

Ads
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Florida City To Seize Homes & Cars Over $5 Parking Ticket Speeders & Drunk Drivers are MURDERERS Driving 11 April 26th 07 02:14 AM
UK proposal to steal items from homes over unpaid parking tickets Brent P[_1_] Driving 0 April 12th 07 08:16 PM
Dead Man in Car Gets 3 Parking Tickets Bo Raxo Driving 11 March 6th 06 03:38 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:02 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AutoBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.