“Fail To Remain”

Hi,

Recently a friend of mine was charged with 'Failure to remain'. His argument for not remaining is that amidst the confusion of the incident he had not realized that he made contact with the other vehicle, and believed to have evaded unscathed.

After arriving at work he received a phone call from a Traffic cop telling him he'd been in a accident, however he was unable to return to the scene due to the fact he would have lost his job. However they agreed to meet the following morning. The incident involved only superficial and very minor damages to each vehicle, in fact only part of one of his head lights fell off with zero body damage.

My friend had previously only a '10km/h over the limit' ticket on his record, and now he has the 'Failure to remain'. Those are the only two charges in his whole driving record. The question is,

How likely will the Prosecution be understanding of his argument for 'failing to remain'?

Will the Prosecution be sympathetic of the previously clean driving record?

If he's found guilty, will he be looking at relatively minor consequences, or should he (figuratively) jump off a bridge now?

Thanks!

How likely will the Prosecution be understanding of his argument for 'failing to remain'?

-He would have to convince the court that he was genuinely unaware that he had been involved in an accident. This might be a tough sell depending on the circumstances. The fact that he wasn't able to come back even after being notified by the police won't help his case.

Will the Prosecution be sympathetic of the previously clean driving record?

-Having a clean record might get you some slack during sentencing or make the prosecution be a little more willing to plea bargain. However this is a serious charge so I don't know how much this will help overall.

If he's found guilty, will he be looking at relatively minor consequences, or should he (figuratively) jump off a bridge now?

-The penalty for this charge is a fine of not less than $400 and not more than $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months as well as a licence suspension that could be as long as two years. If convicted he would also likely be classed as a high risk driver for insurance purposes and be looking at sky high insurance rates. Since there is the potential for jail time involved it would probably be a good idea to hire a lawyer or paralegal who specializes in traffic cases.