Driving While Suspended

 

Drive under suspension is an offence under s.53 of the Highway Traffic Act RSO 1990, c H.8. This is a provincial driving offence and is not a criminal charge. You may have thought your license was not suspended and continued to drive. This situation is very common and it is imperative you structure the best defense possible to avoid any penalties.

This carries a minimum fine on a first offence of $1,000.00 plus victim surcharge and a mandatory 6-month suspension. On subsequent offence, if the prior is within 5 years, the minimum fine is $2,000.00. The automatic license suspension is 6 months.

Subsequently, if the reason for the suspension is as a result of a conviction under the criminal code (e.g. Impaired driving, dangerous driving, fail to stop, refuse breath sample) the minimum sentence for a first time offender is a fine of not less than $5,000.00, and for subsequent offences a fine of not less than $10,000.00.

Section 42(1) of the Highway Traffic Act states that a person will automatically be suspended from driving for one year upon their first conviction and at least 2 years upon a subsequent conviction for drive while disqualified.

We use our experience and strong advocacy skills to assist you in avoiding an increase in insurance, accumulating demerit points and a possible driving license suspension. We scrutinize the evidence against you and present a strong defense before the court.

How to defend these charges? 

We are experienced at obtaining an early resolution or taking your matter to trial. We use our advocacy skills and experience to put forward a defense showing you were not willfully evading the police officer and have a reasonable excuse. The prosecution may offer you a plea at the outset. If this is going to adversely affect your insurance and demerits you should fight the ticket.

Try and recollect everything and the surrounding circumstances when you received your traffic ticket.  We review and analyze thoroughly where the alleged traffic offence occurred, the weather conditions on that day, the traffic density, any available pictures and videos of that area.  You should never plead guilty without consulting an experienced lawyer first. Pleading not guilty and fighting your ticket is merely exercising your constitutional rights to question the prosecution’s evidence. Remember anything you say to the police officer can be used against you. We have the experience to cross examine police officers and witnesses at trial to bring out inconsistencies and weaknesses in the evidence against you.

In order to avoid ridiculously high insurance premiums, it is advisable to take your traffic ticket to trial and fight it. We aim to bring out contradictions in the police officers evidence at trial. If there are inconsistencies in the evidence against you, your ticket may be dropped.

There may be several instances where your constitutional rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms may have been infringed. We analyze all the details in your case and assess any infringement of these rights.  If there has been an unreasonable delay in your case, we bring an application to have it dismissed outright.

If you have been convicted of a Highway Traffic Act offence, you have 15 days to appeal the conviction. You should consider appealing against a conviction if you were treated unfairly, there was a violation of your Charter rights, you were denied to cross examine the Crowns witness or if there was an error committed by the judge. Consult an experienced traffic ticket lawyer to consider your chances on appeal.