Received summons for Part I careless driving

If summons received for Part I offence "careless driving" and got the date of appearance on the summons, what is the next procedure?

A summons is NOT a trial. At the summons date the police officer will NOT be there, and you will only be asked how you want to plead to the charge.

You can plead guilty if want, but this is highly not recommended because careless carries the same insurance increases as a DUI. You want to avoid this charge if at all possible.

You can also say you plan to plead not guilty and want to see the disclosure (all the officers notes and any witness statements taken) and they will then schedule a new date for your trial for you to come back to and send you the disclosure before that date. Getting disclosure is really important because when you read the officers notes, it tells you whether the charge of careless can really be supported or not. A lot of times an officer will lay a careless driving charge, but if it went to trial they would not be able to win because the situation/notes do not actually support the charge.

The other thing that could happen is at the summons date, the prosecutor may offer you a plea deal to a lower charge. You have the option to accept the plea deal on the spot and plead guilty to it instead of careless which is usually a far better choice than getting the careless charge. You can also say you would like to see the disclosure before you accept the plead deal, and usually the prosecutor will say okay and they will then set another summons date (which is not the trial date) for you to come back to after you have reviewed the disclosure.

If you decide that the officers notes do not have the information to support the charge of careless, then you may want to not accept any plea deals and take it to trial and try to beat it completely. However the downside of this is if you lose at trial, then you are still stuck with a careless charge. If you decide to go to trial and fight it, you will probably want to hire a paralegal unless you have experience yourself in court.

So if money is an issue, then your best choice is to accept a plea deal to a lesser charge and you can do this all yourself without hiring anybody. The lesser charge may still cause an increase in insurance rates but not anywhere near as bad as a careless charge.

ShrekTek wrote:

A summons is NOT a trial. At the summons date the police officer will NOT be there, and you will only be asked how you want to plead to the charge.

You can plead guilty if want, but this is highly not recommended because careless carries the same insurance increases as a DUI. You want to avoid this charge if at all possible.

You can also say you plan to plead not guilty and want to see the disclosure (all the officers notes and any witness statements taken) and they will then schedule a new date for your trial for you to come back to and send you the disclosure before that date. Getting disclosure is really important because when you read the officers notes, it tells you whether the charge of careless can really be supported or not. A lot of times an officer will lay a careless driving charge, but if it went to trial they would not be able to win because the situation/notes do not actually support the charge.

The other thing that could happen is at the summons date, the prosecutor may offer you a plea deal to a lower charge. You have the option to accept the plea deal on the spot and plead guilty to it instead of careless which is usually a far better choice than getting the careless charge. You can also say you would like to see the disclosure before you accept the plead deal, and usually the prosecutor will say okay and they will then set another summons date (which is not the trial date) for you to come back to after you have reviewed the disclosure.

If you decide that the officers notes do not have the information to support the charge of careless, then you may want to not accept any plea deals and take it to trial and try to beat it completely. However the downside of this is if you lose at trial, then you are still stuck with a careless charge. If you decide to go to trial and fight it, you will probably want to hire a paralegal unless you have experience yourself in court.

So if money is an issue, then your best choice is to accept a plea deal to a lesser charge and you can do this all yourself without hiring anybody. The lesser charge may still cause an increase in insurance rates but not anywhere near as bad as a careless charge.

Thanks ShrekTec. It was so helpful.

Since I am new in this forum and taking so much time to figure it out that where and how to post reply.

I got the police report for careless driving summons.

The scenario was Car A (who got the summons) was driving on highway (6 lanes). Car B was trying to enter the highway from right side road. Car B hit car A.

Car B has two witnesses. Car A does not have any wittiness.

Police report says, Car B was trying to make a left turn on hwy and all the traffic was stopped on hwy to let Car B to make a left turn.

Car A did not stop with that traffic and was going in its lane when Car B hit Car A.

how to defend this?

Sorry just a little confused... Did the driver of Car A or the driver of Car B get charged with Careless Driving?

It seems to me that Car A was not at fault at all and should not have been charged with anything. Car A did not have to stop even though other vehicles were stopped, and Car B would be completely at fault.

ShrekTek wrote:

Sorry just a little confused... Did the driver of Car A or the driver of Car B get charged with Careless Driving?

It seems to me that Car A was not at fault at all and should not have been charged with anything. Car A did not have to stop even though other vehicles were stopped, and Car B would be completely at fault.

What he said.

Yes Car A got the Summons for careless driving. Car B driver was not charged.

It was a big hit , Car A got damaged so much and air bags were out. Car A driver was taken to hospital and police was not there until that time only fire and ambulance was there. Police officer went to hospital and gave summons to Car A driver.

oh and there was Car C who got hit by Car B. Car C driver was talking to the driver of Car B after accident happened and Car C driver might have said something to the Police officer so that's why the officer went to hospital and just handed the summons.

If Car A was driving down the road and there was no obligation for car to stop (no stop sign, no yield sign and no stop light) and Car B pulled out from a side street or driveway (and from between other cars), then if I was driver of Car A I would definitely fight this charge because it does not seem right to me that they got charged. If it was me I would probably not take a plea deal even as I think it would be hard to prove careless.

Again though the driver that was charged should request disclosure (officers notes, witness statements, other documents) and review them before making final decision but it seems to me that Car B is the one that should have been charged.

Thanks well that is what I thought so too.

Can the person request the disclosure before the first appearance date of summons?

If it is a summons then the court date is NOT a trial, and you can request disclosure from the prosecutor at court at this time and also ask for a trial date to be set.

I would also bring drawings of what happened though because if you can convince the prosecutor at this summons date that they have no chance of reasonably prosecuting the charge, then they will drop it.

There are free programs online that let you draw sketches of accident. Google "draw accident sketch"