Dangerous driving Lawyers in Canada

The Crown is the prosecutor. Section 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives a person charged with an offence the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, so the Crown is the side that has to prove the charge.

Section 320.13(1) has two parts. The person must have operated a conveyance, and the manner of operating it must, having regard to all of the circumstances, have been dangerous to the public. Section 320.11 defines a conveyance as a motor vehicle, a vessel, an aircraft or railway equipment. For a motor vehicle, to operate means to drive it or to have care or control of it. For a vessel or an aircraft, it means to navigate it, to assist in its navigation or to have care or control of it.

Sections 320.13(2) and 320.13(3) add a result. Under subsection (2), the dangerous operation must, as a result, cause bodily harm to another person. Under subsection (3), it must, as a result, cause the death of another person. Section 2 of the Criminal Code defines bodily harm as any hurt or injury to a person that interferes with the health or comfort of the person and that is more than merely transient or trifling in nature.

The words all of the circumstances matter. The section looks at the whole situation in which the conveyance was operated, not at one fact alone. What the evidence shows about the manner of operation is part of the case, and a lawyer can explain how it applies.

The penalty depends on which part of section 320.13 is charged. For section 320.13(1), section 320.19 makes the offence one that can proceed on indictment, with a maximum of imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or as an offence punishable on summary conviction. Section 787(1) sets the general penalty for a summary conviction offence: a fine of not more than $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than two years less a day, or both.

Where the dangerous operation causes bodily harm, section 320.2 sets a maximum on indictment of not more than 14 years in prison. It also sets minimum punishments: for a first offence, a fine of $1,000; for a second offence, imprisonment for 30 days; and for each subsequent offence, imprisonment for 120 days. On summary conviction, the same section sets a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than two years less a day, or both, with the same minimum punishments.

Where the dangerous operation causes death, section 320.21 says the person is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life. The same minimum punishments apply: a fine of $1,000 for a first offence, imprisonment for 30 days for a second, and imprisonment for 120 days for each subsequent offence.

A driving prohibition may also follow. Under section 320.24, a court that finds an offender guilty of an offence under section 320.13 may, in addition to any other punishment, make an order prohibiting the offender from operating the type of conveyance in question. The length is set by the maximum punishment for the offence. If the offender is liable to imprisonment for life, the period can be any duration the court considers appropriate. If the offender is liable to imprisonment for more than five years but less than life, it is not more than 10 years. In any other case it is not more than three years. Each of those periods is added to the entire period the offender is sentenced to imprisonment.

A maximum is the ceiling the law allows. It does not say what a court would order in any case.

The words of section 320.13 show where a case can turn. The questions are whether the person operated the conveyance, which includes who was in control of it, whether the manner of operating it was dangerous to the public having regard to all of the circumstances, and, for the parts that cover harm and death, whether the harm or death was a result of the dangerous operation. Whether a particular defence applies is a question for the court on the evidence, and a lawyer can explain it.

Charter rights also apply. Section 8 gives everyone the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. Section 9 gives everyone the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned. Section 10 gives everyone on arrest or detention the right to be informed promptly of the reasons and the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right. Section 11(b) gives a person charged with an offence the right to be tried within a reasonable time. Under section 24(1), anyone whose Charter rights were infringed may apply to a court for a remedy, and under section 24(2), evidence obtained in a manner that infringed Charter rights is excluded if admitting it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

In Ontario, every charge under the Criminal Code starts in the Ontario Court of Justice, and about 95% of charges are completed there. The Ontario Court of Justice publishes daily court lists of adult criminal cases for the current and next day.

A person who is arrested may be taken before a justice for a release decision. Under section 515, the justice shall make a release order without conditions unless the prosecutor shows cause why detention in custody is justified or why another order under that section should be made. Section 493.1 says that release at the earliest reasonable opportunity, on the least onerous conditions that are appropriate, is the primary consideration. Section 11(e) of the Charter protects the right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause.

An appeal from a conviction on a summary conviction offence goes, in Ontario, to the Superior Court of Justice sitting in the region, district or county where the case was decided. After a conviction on indictment, an appeal goes to the court of appeal. A person may appeal as of right on a question of law alone. An appeal on a question of fact, or of mixed law and fact, needs leave, and so does an appeal against sentence.

Legal Aid Ontario may pay for a lawyer if the person qualifies and is charged with a crime that could mean jail on conviction, or is 12 to 17 and charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Duty counsel is a lawyer at the courthouse for that day. Duty counsel can advise on rights, ask to delay a court date, act at a bail hearing, help with a guilty plea, speak at sentencing, and meet the Crown, for people who qualify and have no lawyer.

A legal aid certificate pays a roster lawyer, one approved to take legal aid clients, for the length of the criminal case. Applications are online or by phone at 1-800-668-8258.

The Law Society of Ontario keeps a public Lawyer and Paralegal Directory, where a lawyer's licence can be looked up. The Ontario lawyers on this site are listed by city. Nothing on this page ranks or recommends any of them.