“Caught For The First Time”

Hello friends,

I Received my first speeding ticket after driving in Ontario for over 6 years and I am looking for some advice/help.

It was my bad luck that I was caught speeding on a 40 zone and the Officer said that I was doing 60 which means I would get 3 demerit points.

What is the best way to handle this ?

If I choose to engage the services of a lawyer, How much would be the normal standard charges for the lawyer and other court charges ?

Are there lawyers who would charge only on winning the case ?

If I lose the case and get 3 demerit points, how much would my Insurance go up and for how long ?

Should I take Option 2, meet the Prosecutor and request not to impose the demerit points - what are the chances that they would oblige ?

If I choose Option 3 - request a trial - how long it will take ?

Thanks for your reply Much appreciated.

Yes, there are many paralegal services out there that will fight this ticket for you but if you have the time you can probably fight it on your own. You don't have to pay anything extra to request a trial as court costs are already built into the fine itself. Also there are many paralegal services that charge only upon "winning" the case but you have to realize that "winning" by some of their definitions is any reduction in the fine not necessarily getting the ticket thrown out. So if you do choose to go the paralegal route you might want to ask how far they will fight it for you.

In terms of what will happen to your insurance nobody can tell you what will happen as different insurance companies treat different offenses in different ways. For example some insurance companies will forgive a couple minor tickets every couple of years before you see any rate increases while others may not. You should be aware that insurance companies will usually have the ticket on your record for about 3 years whereas demerit points are off your record in 2 years.

I'm not sure you fully understand your options currently as option 2 usually refers to pleading guilty with an explanation which you DO NOT want to do. This option is essentially the same as pleading guilty and doesn't actually involve trying to strike a deal with the prosecutor. In order to schedule a meeting with the prosecutor to try and strike a deal you will have to plead not guilty. You probably won't have any problem getting the ticket knocked down to 15km/h over on your own and that carries no demerit points and a smaller fine (this is also the deal many paralegal services will get you).

In terms of how long it will take to go to trial this really varies from municipality to municipality. This can also work in your favour as you can potentially get the charge thrown out for unreasonable delay.

As for what you should do right away start will sending in the ticket requesting a trial and then send a disclosure request to the prosecutors office. Details for how to file disclosure and how to fight the ticket in general can be found on http://www.ticketcombat.com. Disclosure basically gives you access to all the crowns evidence against you and lets you decide how you want to go about defending yourself.

Hope this helps, let us know if you have any questions.

Excellent Plenderzoosh. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation.

So I guess that I dont need to have a paralegal fight my case. Anyways how much do they normally charge ?

Ganesha wrote:So I guess that I dont need to have a paralegal fight my case. Anyways how much do they normally charge ?

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