Highway Traffic Act Lawyers in Canada

Section 130(1) defines careless driving. A person is guilty of the offence of driving carelessly who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway or in a specified place without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway or specified place. Section 130(3) covers the same driving where the person thereby causes bodily harm or death to any person.

Section 53(1) applies to a person who drives a motor vehicle or street car on a highway while their driver's licence is suspended under an Act of the Legislature or a regulation made under one.

Section 200(1) sets duties for the person in charge of a vehicle that is directly or indirectly involved in an accident on a highway. The person must remain at or immediately return to the scene of the accident, render all possible assistance, and, on request, give in writing to anyone sustaining loss or injury, to any police officer or to any witness details such as their name, address, driver's licence number and insurance information.

Section 172(1) says that no person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway in a race or contest, on a bet or wager or while performing a stunt.

The prosecution is the side that has to prove a charge. 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 according to law. The prosecution must prove the parts of the section that is charged, as the section words them.

For example, section 53(1) is worded around driving a motor vehicle or street car on a highway while a licence is suspended under an Act of the Legislature or a regulation. Section 130(1) is worded around driving on a highway or in a specified place without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for others. What the terms in each section mean, and what evidence is used to show them, are questions a lawyer can explain.

Each section sets its own penalty. Under section 130(2), careless driving carries a fine of $400 to $2,000, up to six months in jail, or both, and the licence or permit may also be suspended for up to two years. An increase to a fine of $1,000 to $5,000 has been passed but is not yet in force. Under section 130(4), careless driving that causes bodily harm or death carries a fine of $2,000 to $50,000, up to two years in jail, or both, and a suspension of up to five years.

Under section 53(1), driving while suspended carries a fine of $1,000 to $5,000 for a first offence, and $2,000 to $5,000 for each later one. The section also allows up to six months in jail, or both. A change that would raise the fine for a first offence has been passed but is not yet in force.

Under section 200(2), failing to meet the duties after an accident carries a fine of $400 to $2,000, up to six months in jail, or both, and the licence or permit may be suspended for up to two years. Under section 172(2), racing or stunt driving carries a fine of $2,000 to $10,000, up to six months in jail, or both.

Section 214(1) is the general penalty. Where the Act does not provide another penalty for a contravention, a person who is convicted is liable to a fine of $60 to $1,000. A fine or a jail term is a limit set in the law. It does not say what a court would order in any case.

Several sections tie a suspension to a conviction. Section 172(3) says that a person convicted of racing or stunt driving has their licence suspended for a minimum of one year on a first conviction, a minimum of three years on a second, and indefinitely on a third or later one. The careless driving and accident sections allow a suspension of up to two years or up to five years, as set out above.

Section 41 deals with certain Criminal Code driving offences. A conviction for impaired operation and certain other Criminal Code driving offences suspends an Ontario licence for one year on a first conviction, three years on the first subsequent one, and indefinitely after that. Under section 41(3), the longer periods do not apply when the subsequent conviction is more than 10 years after the previous conviction.

Section 48.3 works differently, because it does not depend on a conviction. When a police officer is satisfied that a person driving or having the care, charge or control of a motor vehicle meets one of the criteria in that section, the officer must request that the person surrender their driver's licence. The licence is then suspended for 90 days from the time the request is made.

A Highway Traffic Act suspension is separate from a driving prohibition ordered by a court under the Criminal Code. Under section 320.24 of the Criminal Code, for a first impaired-operation offence the prohibition period is not less than one year and not more than three years, plus the entire period to which the offender is sentenced to imprisonment.

Section 11 of the Charter begins with the words any person charged with an offence. The rights it lists include being tried within a reasonable time under section 11(b) and the presumption of innocence in section 11(d).

Section 8 gives everyone the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. Section 10(b) gives everyone on arrest or detention the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right. 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. Whether a right was infringed in a particular case is a question for the court.

Some driving is charged under the Criminal Code and not the Highway Traffic Act. In Ontario, every charge under the Criminal Code starts in the Ontario Court of Justice, and about 95% are completed there. An appeal from a conviction on indictment goes to the court of appeal under section 675(1), as of right on a question of law alone, and with leave on questions of fact or mixed law and fact, and against sentence.

This page does not describe how a provincial offence charge is started or heard, and it does not describe demerit points or insurance.

Legal Aid Ontario's criminal legal issues page says it 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. Whether a particular Highway Traffic Act charge fits that description is a question to put to Legal Aid Ontario. 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. This site lists Ontario lawyers by city, and nothing on this page ranks or recommends any of them.