Failure to remain at the scene of an accident can be both under the Highway Traffic Act and under the Criminal Code. The repercussions can affect your insurance, demerit points and ability to drive. They can also result in result in criminal charges and a criminal record for life.

Penalty under the HTA

Penalties for a failure to remain charge include a maximum fine of up to $2000 and a maximum of six months imprisonment.

How to defend failure to remain charges?

If you have been charged with failure to remain it is imperative that you speak to an experienced lawyer first before speaking to the police. The police will want to speak to you first and find out what happened. There is a possibility that you may have had a reasonable excuse as to why the accident happened. You may not have known at the time that you were responsible for the accident. There may have been another driver responsible for the collision.  We analyze the evidence against you and if necessary we are ready to go to trial to defend this ticket. There maybe several circumstances around which we build a strong legal defence. We have experience in cross-examining police officers if your matter goes to trial.

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 the scene of the accident. 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 and speak to an experienced lawyer first.

Don’t waste any time in speaking to an experienced lawyer. 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.

In order to avoid 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 options.

Dangerous Driving
Distracted Driving / Hand-held Devices
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