Traffic Tickets

Stop Signs - Traffic Tickets - Stop Sign Violations

Stop Sign Violations can have up to four different penalties

Stop Signs, the fine attached to a Stop Sign traffic ticket, like most traffic tickets, is not the only penalty for the offence. Any stop sign ticket has four or more different penalties.

Although many stop sign traffic tickets, are minor and may just involve a "rolling stop", any stop sign traffic ticket if not fought will go on your driving record for three years. This conviction is available to your insurance company to see and base your insurance rates upon.

A Stop Sign ticket has three demerit points, that if you pay the ticket go immediately on your driving record and stay on the driving record for two years from the offence date.

With a stop sign ticket your insurance company perceives this as a "line" or conviction on your driving abstract/record. The insurance company bases your rates on what is on the driving record. As well your insurance company will perceive that persons who are convicted of stop sign violations are the same people driving through intersections without stopping and are the persons more likely to be involved in a traffic accident.

If you have been involved in a traffic accident and received a ticket for disobeying a stop sign, paying the ticket acknowledges to the court, government and your insurance company that you admit being at fault in the accident. Subsequently your insurance company gives you two strikes on your insurance. One for being at fault in the accident and another for receiving the stop sign ticket.


Stop Sign Tickets - Going to Court

For most stop sign tickets the prosecutor at traffic court will want to have a trial. If you do not know how to run a stop sign trial, make legal arguments, or have not appeared in traffic court before you need OTT Legal Services professional, qualified team on your side. With a stop sign ticket you cannot afford to lose, as the fine attached to a stop sign ticket is not the only penalty for the offence.

Offences are not registered with the Ministry of Transportation until the ticket is either paid or a conviction has been registered by the court. Insurance companies are not made aware of a driving offence until the conviction has been sent to the Ministry of Transportation by the court registering the conviction.

Therefore if you have applied for a court date and are awaiting trial the Ministry of Transportation and your insurance company is not made aware of the offence. Just filing for a court date can keep the conviction off your driving record saving your insurance rates.

A conviction for not coming to a full and complete stop at a stop sign stays on a driving record for three years from the date of the offence. A rolling stop at an intersection is considered a violation. The law requires that at a Stop Sign a driver must come to a "full and complete stop".

There is no time limitation put on how long the stop must be only that it must be full and complete.

Like any traffic ticket the Police and Prosecutor have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt to the Justice of the Peace before a conviction can be entered, and means that the Justice of the Peace must be one hundred percent certain the motorist committed the offence.

If the prosecution is not able to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt the Justice of the Peace should dismiss the charge.

The police are required, therefore, to prove all the essential elements of the stop sign charge described in section 136,1a of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act.

     Every driver or street car operator approaching a stop sign at an intersection,
     (a) shall stop his or her vehicle or street car at a marked stop line or, if none, then immediately      before entering the nearest crosswalk or, if none, then immediately before entering the      intersection; and

     (b) shall yield the right of way to traffic in the intersection or approaching the intersection on      another highway so closely that to proceed would constitute an immediate hazard and, having so      yielded the right of way, may proceed.

At trial the police officer will have a government appointed prosecutor to assist them as counsel. It is equally important that the defendant to be well represented or they risk being convicted and receiving the four penalties described above for stop sign offences.

The prosecutor is a trained legal professional who represents the interests of the municipality/government. The prosecutor's job is to get a conviction against the motorist for the stop sign offence. Most Prosecutors are extremely fair individuals however they are not there to help you.

To ensure that you are properly represented in traffic court call OTT and get the legal professionals on your side.

Why Risk Losing? Call For a Free Consultation 1-888-668-8946 or Email Your Request