Recent content by Ron Harper

It sounds like he's been charged with Fail To Surrender Insurance Card and Drive With No Valid Permit. If so, neither carries a demerit point penalty but both would result in a record of conviction visible for insurance purposes.

A lawyer or a paralegal? Normally most lawyers do not directly deal with this area of law. You may want to clarify whether your lawyer will be dealing directly with the Prosecutor and will be personally attending court appearances. If they are charging you their hourly rate as a lawyer, but...

The CAIA 2(1)(a) offence must be issued by way of summons due to the inherent penalties. While s.130 for Careless Driving may be issued by ticket or summons, it would be very atypical given the scenario for one offence to be issued by ticket and another by summons for charges stemming from a...

Absolutely. The problem with the original posting is that you have to be incredibly careful applying anecdotal stories from the Internet against specific cases before the court. Virtually every week I see self-represented Defendants grasping onto a segment of information they found on the...

Operate M/V - No Insurance, does not fall under the HTA. It is issued under section 2(1)(a) of the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act.

You have been issued arguably two of the most severe charges under the HTA and CAIA. Given that they were issued after the fact and that one offence is for no insurance, they will likely have been issued by way of summons. Careless Driving carries 6 demerit points and is generally considered a...

An Officer is only required to be present on a trial date. The odds of Officer non-attendance are very low to the point of being non-existent currently. In a given year my office handles literally thousands HTA/CAIA charges before the court and out of that caseload I may see 1 to 2 matters...

Re: Anyone tried thetrafficlawyers.ca? advice on paralegal vs lawyer please? I have been a Crown Prosecutor, Municipal Prosecutor, and worked on the defence half of the courtroom for over 30 years. Generally HTA matters are dealt with by paralegals as they deal specifically with this area of...

A good paralegal should be doing much more for a client than simply arranging a plea deal, let alone just negotiating a fine which does little to help the defendant. Paralegals, like lawyers, are licenced under the Law Society of Upper Canada and have the same obligations in representing their...

It sounds like you've done your basic homework. To review the basics of a Stunt Driving / Race Motor vehicle offence, under HTA s.172: "Offence(2) Every person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $2,000 and not more than...