Need to assist a relative who was charged tonight with careless driving resulting in an accident and your help and input is greatly appreciated. Situation: Relative was approaching the intersection and passed through what he thought was a green light. He indicated that the other driver ran a red light and hit him. The other driver alleges that in fact it was my relative ran the red light, thereby causing the accident. Apparently a witness said that it was my relative who ran the red light, though it wasn't apparent that the witness had a good view of what was going on. We don't have a lot of time to spend fighting running back and forth to appear in court - can you please advise if this is something that is worthwhile... a) paying a company to fight on his behalf? If so, suggestions for who should do this and how much it would cost would be helpful). b) fighting this ourselves - potential outcomes? Has anyone had careless driving charges reduced to running a red light in a similar situation?
Need to assist a relative who was charged tonight with careless driving resulting in an accident and your help and input is greatly appreciated.
Situation:
Relative was approaching the intersection and passed through what he thought was a green light. He indicated that the other driver ran a red light and hit him. The other driver alleges that in fact it was my relative ran the red light, thereby causing the accident. Apparently a witness said that it was my relative who ran the red light, though it wasn't apparent that the witness had a good view of what was going on.
We don't have a lot of time to spend fighting running back and forth to appear in court - can you please advise if this is something that is worthwhile...
a) paying a company to fight on his behalf? If so, suggestions for who should do this and how much it would cost would be helpful).
b) fighting this ourselves - potential outcomes? Has anyone had careless driving charges reduced to running a red light in a similar situation?
Careless Driving is a serious charge that if convicted will dramatically affect the insurance rates, and some insurance companies will cancel the insurance policy for a Careless Driving conviction. As well there are 6 demerit points, and commercial drivers are usually considered high risk to be a professional driver with 6 points. You can always go to court yourself, but your always going to get better results if you get someone who knows the court system and legal arguments to represent you in traffic court. As well some companies like ours have former traffic police officers with years of experience dealing with traffic accidents and investigations. You pay more but the case gets handled properly and you get every opportunity to have the case dropped on a legal technicality. We see this everyday that people appear by themselves but the miss the legal issue that would have gotten the ticket dropped. Usually in my experience what I see with your friends type of case, is that when the ticket goes to court the charge either gets dropped completely because something went wrong with the officers investigation, or the worst case is that the ticket geta reduced to a red light charge. A red light charge is 3 demerit points instead of 6 for the Careless Driving and is considered a minor insurance conviction verses the major insurance conviction of a careless driving ticket.
Careless Driving is a serious charge that if convicted will dramatically affect the insurance rates, and some insurance companies will cancel the insurance policy for a Careless Driving conviction. As well there are 6 demerit points, and commercial drivers are usually considered high risk to be a professional driver with 6 points.
You can always go to court yourself, but your always going to get better results if you get someone who knows the court system and legal arguments to represent you in traffic court. As well some companies like ours have former traffic police officers with years of experience dealing with traffic accidents and investigations. You pay more but the case gets handled properly and you get every opportunity to have the case dropped on a legal technicality. We see this everyday that people appear by themselves but the miss the legal issue that would have gotten the ticket dropped.
Usually in my experience what I see with your friends type of case, is that when the ticket goes to court the charge either gets dropped completely because something went wrong with the officers investigation, or the worst case is that the ticket geta reduced to a red light charge.
A red light charge is 3 demerit points instead of 6 for the Careless Driving and is considered a minor insurance conviction verses the major insurance conviction of a careless driving ticket.
Chris Conway
Retired Toronto Traffic Officer, Hit & Run Squad Detective,
Breathalyzer Tech, Radar/Highway Patrol
Licenced Paralegal
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