For many years, people who contest a Statement of Offence can submit to the Municipal Court explanations likely to demonstrate that this Statement is wrong and that it should not be sent for adjudication by a judge.
This procedure is particularly relevant when the citizen who received the Statement has since deceased or when the citizen has the parking meter receipt showing that he had indeed paid his parking fees at the time the Statement was issued.
Such an administrative review is important since it avoids useless encumbering of the Municipal Court Docket with files where there will clearly be an acquittal; it also saves citizens from the inconvenience related to going to Court.
In December 2012, many citizens requested our assistance because, despite the explanations and evidence they had submitted, the Court had just informed them that their case was being sent to trial.
In our investigation, we learned that, in all of these files, the Court had not conducted the usual administrative review or considered the proofs submitted by the citizens.
Following our interventions, Municipal Court managers proceeded to the administrative review of all files we submitted to them. In some of these cases, Statements were immediately withdrawn. In others, the referral to judicial adjudication was suspended and Court managers undertook that the file would be administratively reviewed.
They also undertook to proceed in the same manner with each similar file submitted by a citizen. Instructions were issued to customer service agents explaining how they should proceed, in all such cases.
