Hello,

In February 2014, my daughter missed her last GO bus in Burlington (on the way to Niagara Falls) and I was forced to pick her up quickly before she freezes (-20C in GO station under construction). I was driving fast and was clocked 153 km/h on QEW. The officer reduced to 149 (from racing to speeding). I had first appearance with prosecutor in order to have a possible reduction and he rejected, noted that it was already reduced and if I go to trial it might be reverted back to racing. I decided to adjourn the next appointment to the end of July (31st) in order to get a legal advice.

I have a signed letter from my daughter and my daughter's friend with full explanation on how and why they missed the last bus on the way from Toronto (Union) to Niagara Falls. I don't know if it will be any help during the trial.

So should I plead guilty and go to trial? What is the chance that I can lose and charge could be reverted to 153 km/h racing?

Thanks.

dolf2709 wrote:

I have a signed letter from my daughter and my daughter's friend with full explanation on how and why they missed the last bus on the way from Toronto (Union) to Niagara Falls. I don't know if it will be any help during the trial.

No, that won't justify your actions in Court. It's basically an admission you were speeding.

dolf2709 wrote:

So should I plead guilty and go to trial? What is the chance that I can lose and charge could be reverted to 153 km/h racing?

If you go to trial its pretty much guaranteed theyll raise it back up to 153 km/hr. They may not add the stunt driving charge (especially if 6+ months has passed) but 50+ over conviction can have much more significant impact on your insurance.

I wouldnt go to trial just on whim. Review the evidence and see if theres anything you can fight the charge on. If not, you might be better off pleading guilty.

dolf2709 wrote:

I have a signed letter from my daughter and my daughter's friend with full explanation on how and why they missed the last bus on the way from Toronto (Union) to Niagara Falls. I don't know if it will be any help during the trial.

Already covered above, but it won't. If you admit to speeding, the only defence then is "defence of necessity." This means a life-threatening emergency. If you want to go that route, they'd likely start probing as to why your daughter didn't have warmer clothes when it was -20C, why she didn't seek shelter elsewhere than the GO station (e.g. coffee shop - don't know where this happened but you probably see where this is going), etc. You'd have to prove that there was no other real choice. In fact, if she was able to contact you to say she was too cold, they'll argue that she also could have called police or paramedics if frostbite/hypothermia was a concern. I'd leave that one alone.

As Stanton says - unless the disclosure is incomplete or there's some other major flaw, I'd just plead guilty.

Thank you, very much, guys!

I really appreciate your advise. I will definitely plead guilty.

Do you know if there is a way to plead guilty (on-line or by phone) when appointment with prosecutor is already scheduled to avoid going to the court?

Thanks a lot

If you have an early resolution meeting scheduled with the Prosecutor, you can always say you are interested in pleading guilty but looking for a lower fine. Unfortunately at this stage, you're pretty well committed to going to court, but you can make it quick and painless.

Failing that, I don't think you can't do much on line but you can all the Prosecutor's office just to let them know you're going to plead guilty. If you can stop the court stuff by paying on-line and sending a receipt to the Prosecutor (check with them first), then you could go ahead and do that. First step, though, would be to call the Prosecutor's office.

Just pay the fine. That's pleading guilty.

No meeting and no court required.

Ops copper