Careless Driving- Traffic Tickets

Careless Driving - Careless Driving Tickets

Call OTT Legal to discuss your careless driving ticket with one of our former police officers and/or licenced paralegals. OTT Legal has one of the highest success rates for fighting Careless Driving tickets in Ontario.

OTT Legal's court agents are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, and we ensure that your ticket receives the individual attention and priority necessary to do everything to win your case. For each case we obtain the officers notes (disclosure) and evidence prior to trial, and we investigate all legal procedures to have your careless driving charge dismissed.

When your case comes to court our experts in traffic ticket defense work to have your charge dropped entirely. If we cannot have the charge dropped completely we will ensure that the ticket is dropped to save your demerit points, any license suspension and to have any fine reduced to its lowest.

Fighting Careless Driving Tickets

Careless Driving tickets are serious traffic tickets that can affect your right to drive and your insurance. Even the police will tell you that you have to fight these tickets.

Careless Driving can include many driving events, but for most cases, Careless Driving means that if you had just driven more "careful" the incident would not have happened, e.g. driving slower, or leaving more space from the car in front.

If you fight the ticket yourself might be able have ticket reduced, but you lose any chance of having the ticket dropped completely on a legal technicality, or have your defense properly presented the judge. If you do fight the ticket yourself and something goes wrong you will have a huge insurance problem, and 6 demerit points on your driving record. Insurance wise a careless driving ticket is considered a major violation, in the same category as Hit and Run accidents and drinking and driving charges.

If your Careless Driving ticket is as a result of a traffic accident, you actually help the court by appearing by yourself. By appearing in person you assist in providing the "identity evidence" (the who did it part of a trial; who, what, when, where, and how).

Careless Driving - What you need to know

Once you have received a careless driving ticket you need to decide what to do. If you want to speak to someone about your ticket give us a call, you can speak to one of our former police officers and licensed paralegals at no charge and discuss your ticket. OTT Legal has years of experience with careless driving tickets and we have successfully represented thousands of drivers.

On the back of the traffic ticket the court gives you three or more options, plead guilty, plead guilty with an explanation, or set a trial date. You have to make a decide what to do with your ticket within 15 days, and present the ticket to the court with your decision.

The best way to win your ticket and keep it off your driving record is to set a trial date.

The ticket has to taken to the court where the ticket has been issued from, the address is listed on the back of the ticket. Once you appear at the court the court clerks may try to steer you into speaking with the prosecutor to get you to plead to the charge. The best thing to do and what is recommend is to set a trial date for your ticket.

When you set a trial date for your careless driving ticket, you do not have pay to the fine, and ticket will not go on your driving record/abstract until a judge decides if your guilty of the charge.

The court will put your ticket into the system to schedule your case for a trial. Depending upon what jurisdiction the ticket was issued in it may take from 3 months to one year for your case to come to court. The longer your careless driving ticket takes to come to court the better. In the meantime the ticket is not on your driving or insurance record.

Definition of Careless Driving

Careless Driving - Highway Traffic Act of Ontario - is defined as;

     "Every person is guilty of the offence of careless driving and driving carelessly who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $200 and not more than $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months, or to both, and in addition his or her licence or permit may be suspended for a period of not more than two years."

Although Careless Driving may be considered driving recklessly, it also can be defined by the police and courts as not driving carefully, not driving careful enough, being distracted momentarily, or not paying enough attention to your driving, especially if an accident occurs, "driving without due care and attention".

Or a Careless Driving charge may be defined as, the driver was "driving without consideration for other persons using the roadway".

Careless Driving Penalty

As with most traffic tickets the fine attached to a Careless Driving ticket is not the only penalty. A Careless Driving ticket has the following penalties.

For careless driving there are also serious insurance implications including cancellation of your insurance policy, or your insurance rates can be raised thousands of dollars per year.

A conviction for careless driving stays on your driving record for 3 years, insurance companies may keep a careless driving conviction on their records for even longer.

At OTT Legal we fight your careless driving ticket for you, giving you the best opportunity to keep your driving record clear, insurance rates at their lowest, and to save your demerit points. Call OTT Legal today at 1-888-668-8946 or visit one of our eight Ontario offices.

Fighting a Careless Driving Ticket

If you represent yourself in traffic court you may miss winning your case on a legal technicalities, and you may unknowingly help the prosecution prove the case against you.

For a careless driving the Police and Prosecutor have to prove a the charge "beyond a reasonable doubt" to the judge before a conviction can be entered. Meaning the Judge has to be one hundred percent certain the motorist committed the traffic offence before they can find you guilty.

The police are required to prove all the essential elements of careless driving described in section 130 of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act. If the prosecution is not able to prove the charge the judge should dismiss the charge.

A careless driving charge should not be taken to trial by person without experience and legal training. Use caution before considering to represent yourself for a Careless Driving charge, and call OTT Legal prior to the court date to discuss your ticket.

When you represent yourself in traffic court you will find that the government has "stacked the cards" against you.

At trial the police officer will have a government appointed Provincial Prosecutor to assist them as legal counsel. Some Provincial Prosecutors are lawyers. The Provincial Prosecutors are trained professionals who represent the interests of the municipality/city, their job is to prosecute and convict the driver.

It is equally important that you to be likewise well represented or you risk being convicted and receiving the serious penalties for careless driving. If you do represent yourself and something goes wrong the consequences can be serious, difficult and expensive to correct.

As with any traffic ticket, the prosecutor always has to prove the who, what, when and where of the case. With any Careless Driving charge as a result of an accident, sometimes when the driver represents themselves at court sometimes they actually help the prosecutor.

By personally appearing in traffic court the defendant, (person who is charged with the traffic ticket) provides the "who" also known as the "identity evidence".

All the prosecutor has to do is ask the witness who came to testify against you, or police officer, "who caused the accident" whereupon the witness would point at the defendant (person who got the ticket), completing the "identity evidence".

By appearing in traffic court sometimes the defendant actually helps to convict himself!

As licensed paralegals and former police officers OTT Legal has the background and experience to fight your Careless Driving charge. Call or visit one of our eight Ontario offices to discuss your careless driving ticket with a professional.

More Careless Driving information;

Why Risk Losing? Call OTT Legal or visit our offices to discuss Fighting your Careless Driving ticket.