OHTA.ca

Hello, I need an educated opinion. On July 25th a bit after 10pm my brother called and told me his friend rolled his car 4 times and ran from the scene, my brother was in shock and panicing said he was covered in blood and not sure how badly hurt he was and debating running as well. I tried to calm him told him stay at the scene wait for the cops and tell the truth he was not calming so i told i was on my way because the accident was roughly 10 mins from my home. I raced out realised i was doing 140 and slowed to 75. When i got to the scene of the accident i was pukled over and then realised a cop had followed me shortly after turning off my home street . I explained that i realised my speed and had slowed down that i was in fear for my brother which he could clearly see the accident. His response was "not my problen" the officers at the scene tried to convince him to lowerthe charge under the circumstances and based on my clean driving record. I was charged by dufferin opp and am to appear in cout sept 10th in churchill my vehicle was impounded and i have lost my licence for seven days. The officer had me sit on the side of the road till well after 1 and my ticket was issued july 26th. Ii have no idea whether i should fight this or try for a plea bargain i am the sole provider for my soon to be wife and two children if i lose my licence or can not afford my insurance we will lose everything.... what should i do? who should i talk to? Can i do anything? What can i do for a best case scenerio, or avoid a worst case scenerio, my brother even asked to take the charge and the officer refused, i dont know what to do. Any advice is greatly appreciated

You might get a licence suspension and a large fine, not sure the length of the suspension. Anyway, I would recommend hiring a paralegal who has experience dealing with this sort of thing. That's your best option at this point. They might find something that can get it reduced to 49 over instead of 60 over, but I can't promise anything. Call around...

Yes I will be getting a lawyer either way, I am really just hoping at this point that a judge will be leniant considering I am not a person who frequently makes these mistakes and understands that I made a mistake in fear for my brother... I am really just wondering the odds of the situation being taken into account?

Post your disclosure here and you will have better responses .

Now you're afforded a "due diligence" defence. I really hope you find good representation that can advantage of the circumstances surrounding the ticket. A free consultation will immediately give you a feel for what they plan to do.

There are a lot of necessity/due-diligence cases that are available on CanLII.

R. v. Clarke, 2013 ONCJ 571 (CanLII): http://canlii.ca/t/g1npg

In this case, driver was under probation and charged with Dangerous Driving under the Criminal Code. The allegation was that he was running from the police and speeding 160 in a 100, but in fact... he was driving to his father's house which was on fire. The judge (not JP) said he had the necessity defence and travelled at a speed that was safe given the circumstance.