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On jan 1 i was driving southbound on the 400 just after finch i was pulled over going 166 km h the section where i was caught is pretty long downhill stretch. I am 17 turning 18 soon with a g2 license . My court date is in February

Looking for general advise and any information or experiences you can provide

This is my first driving offence and i am looking for what could be the best out come i already know the worst and should i hire a lawyer or a paralegal

How can i avoid losing demerit points (i know i will lose some but i want to lose as little as possible)

First of all you are going to kill yourself or somebody else if you continue to drive at crazy speeds like that (especially as in low experience driver)!

Now what was the charge or charges that you received?

Stunt driving 172

I dont drive that way usually i dont know why i decided to and i feel like a moron for doing so

License suspended for 7 days

Vehicle impounded for 7 days

Undercover opp

Hopefully the license suspension and vehicle impounded and cost to get back your vehicle will be enough to stop you from doing that ever again!

Any charge you end up convicted of (even a 0 demerit point charge) will still cause your insurance to go up.

There is a possibility that the prosecutor might consider dropping it to 149 in 100 (speeding 49 over) but a lot of times they are not really willing to reduce a stunt driving charge. Maybe (just maybe) if you are very very sorry and very very remorseful, they might (but not guarantees).

So I would suggest that your first step would be to choose the Early Resolution meeting. You can then show up and beg and plead for the speeding 49 over charge. This carries both demerits and a possible insurance increase but is much less serious than the stunt driving charge. If the prosecutor won't do it, then you need to tell him you want to get disclosure and go to trial.

Stunt driving is a serious charge so you may want to hire a lawyer to deal with it. The cost of losing our license and insurance increases will probably be more than what it costs to hire a lawyer so you definitely want to find one that can show you a winning record (charges dismissed) against stunt driving.

I don't know your financial situation but if you get convicted of stunt driving as a G2 you are not going to be able to afford insurance for a long time. $500-$1000 a month probably.

There is little to no hope that they will reduce the charge to 49 over. If you were doing in the low 150's, maybe, not at 66 over the limit. Given your young age, and the very high rate of speed, I highly doubt you will get a deal on this. Likely the only break you will get is the amount of the fine, again, given your young age, and ability to pay, they may give you a break on the fine. Having said that, many JP's will still give the minimum set fine ($2,000) but give you an extended time to pay. Get use to the idea that your licence may be suspended as well. A lawyer will be very expensive. A paralegal will also be expensive for this charge, but usually not as much as a lawyer. Do your homework on which paralegal, almost all of them say they defend traffic tickets but only a few are good at it.

I really don't think at your age and level of experience that you should try to handle any of this on your own. Hire someone good that will get you the best possible outcome. Anything you pay to a lawyer with a good outcome is in my opinion well worth the money. Funny how things change in my day the charges were the least of your worries compared to the wrath of the parents.

ynotp wrote:wrath of the parents.

You mean wrath of the wife? worse than parents. trust me.

Let me guess, he was sitting on the side right after finch, and pulled you right under the bridge. Sounds like exactly what happened to me about a month ago. Just to keep in mind, since you only have your G2, you will receive an immediate 30 day suspension due to the novice escalating driving sanctions (any offense 4 points or higher) upon conviction.

Well yeah thats what im dealing with right now the wrath of my parents but they are here to help me thorugh this process

Does this effect what i put on resumes when i apply for jobs say

Is it like a criminal record having this

I already know it may effect if i work for a company and i need a company vehicle i will probably be declined for the vehicle

But do i have to notify my employer of the incident

And yes i got pulled over in that spot just maybe less than 100 meters before the bridge

It is a Provincial Offence, not a Criminal Offence so no you do not have to put it on your resume (it is not a "crime").

But yes it will show up on your driving record and will most definitely affect your insurance.

Do you guys mind telling me what your insurance was prior to your charge and after and a brief story of what happend and what ended up happening when it was all settled

You dont need to answer this if you dont want to but im just trying to get a rough idea of how this could play out for me

I was recently in a trial for a different speeding offense, but I witnessed negotiations over a stunt driving charge. Not all of it applies to you but some of it might be helpful.

There was a paralegal (or lawyer) representing someone who had been pulled over for 155 in a 100 zone. This driver hadn't had a charge in 7 years, 7 years ago had a conviction for 29 over. The officer had reduced the ticket to 39 over at roadside. The defendant was not present and sent the paralegal with instructions to negotiate for 29 over or schedule a new trial date, but to the disgust of the prosecutor and officers present (they were making jokes like "Oh, the officer's here! Better reschedule the trial and try again!"). Anyway, after about 5 minutes of negotiations (read: grovelling by the paralegal) the paralegal was able to get the charge reduced further to 29 over. Note that the prosecutor absolutely would not have done this on his own, this was done once the paralegal was able to convince the officer that she would impress on the defendant the severity of the penalties for the original charge, and the prosecutor deferred to the officer's decision.

If any part of the above is relevant for you, it's the possibility that the officer may agree that a plea bargain to a lower charge is acceptable if you are remorseful (read: your paralegal/lawyer convincingly says you are remorseful and understand how severe the charge is) and if the officer agrees, the prosecutor likely will too.

As for what the insurance costs would be, I recommend to go on auto insurance websites, put in information that mostly matches yours (same postal code - different address, same age, same date of getting licence etc) with a 0-49 over charge, and with a 50+ over charge, and see what the differences in insurance are. This, along with your lawyer/paralegal's advice, will help you decide if it's worth it to plead to a charge of 49 over if possible, or fight the charge.

For your information, from an insurance perspective there is no difference between a speeding conviction 1km/hr over and 49km/hr over. Both carry the same insurance hike (if any). From a demerit point perspective the brackets are: 0-15km over is 0 points, 16-29km over is 3, 30-49 is 4. I'm not current on how many demerit points a young G2 driver can carry before risk of license suspension, but the points aren't generally relevant unless you get convicted of multiple offenses, so as long as you don't repeat the mistake I wouldn't worry about 3 vs 4 demerit points.

I'll end with a bit of good news: After 3 years, the charge will no longer show up on your insurance or driver's abstract. So it won't affect your long term employment prospects, except with the police (as the police and courts can see your entire history of convictions).

Not all prosecutors defer to the officer's opinion. Once the charge is laid, it becomes the prosecutor's territory and some of them do not care what the officers thinks. The better prosecutors will ask for the officer's opinion on a case as they were the ones dealing with the accused on the side of the road (this is where the whole be nice to the officer thing kicks in), prosecutor has final say though. At 4 points a G1 or G2 driver will lose their licence for 30 days.