How to Win a Careless Driving Ticket

Introduction

• If you’ve been served with a careless driving ticket after a minor accident, you might be alarmed and worried. You’re probably wondering how to win a careless driving ticket. We’re here to help you understand your options and how to achieve the best possible outcome.

Defining a “Win”

• When it comes to defending against a careless driving ticket, it’s essential to clarify what winning means. The primary objective is to avoid a conviction for careless driving due to the severe consequences associated with it.
• In many cases, a win could involve having the charge reduced to a less serious offense, thus minimizing the potential negative impacts.

Full Win vs. Partial Win

• A full win means the careless driving ticket is withdrawn, and it’s as if it never happened. While this outcome is achievable, it doesn’t happen in every case.
• Achieving a full win is a source of pride for us, and we work hard to make it happen. However, not being convicted of careless driving is still considered a win, even if the ticket is reduced to a lesser offense.

Demonstrating a Partial Win

• Consider a scenario where you’ve been charged with careless driving, and upon reviewing the evidence and case law, a potential loophole or a case that directly relates to your situation is found.
• This discovery is presented to the prosecutor and judge, leading to a consensus that you’ve been overcharged, and a conviction for careless driving is not warranted.
• In such cases, where the charge is reduced or dismissed, it’s considered a success, and it often leads to financial relief and less impact on your insurance rates.

The Role of Legal Professionals

• Achieving a win in a careless driving case requires a deep understanding of the evidence and relevant case law.
• Our legal experts review the disclosure, which includes the evidence and case against you, and compare it to the case law relevant to your specific circumstances.
• We look for case law that closely aligns with your situation and also identify any potential arguments the prosecution might use against us.
• Knowing the cases that could be used against us allows us to prepare counterarguments to neutralize any prosecutor’s claims. We highlight the facts that support your case and demonstrate that any consequences should be minimal.

Conclusion

• Winning a careless driving ticket involves a combination of legal expertise, thorough case analysis, and effective argumentation.
• A win can be a complete withdrawal, a reduction to a lesser offense, or any outcome that minimizes the impact of the ticket.
• Our experienced staff has handled countless cases, and we’re well-prepared to help you achieve the best possible result.

If you have any questions or need assistance with your careless driving ticket, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.

Additional Resources

• To learn more about the consequences of careless driving, visit the Ontario Ministry of Transportation website.
• For legal information and resources on traffic violations in Ontario, explore the Ontario Traffic Council website.
• Dangerous Driving vs Careless Driving
• What Can A Careless Driving Charge Be Reduced To?
• How To Get A Careless Driving Ticket Dismissed In Ontario
• Legal Ticket Defense For Careless Driving In Ontario

Video Transcription:

You were involved in a minor accident and unfortunately you were served with a ticket, A ticket for careless driving. Obviously, you’re alarmed. You don’t like that word, and I understand why. Your question then becomes how to win a careless driving ticket. I’m going to attempt to answer that for you as best I can.

I first must qualify what winning a careless driving ticket actually means. If you’re defending someone on a careless driving, the most important thing to keep in mind is we do not want you convicted of careless driving because of the consequences. So one could easily argue that the win would be getting you into some other minor offense. Probably and arguably the most important thing to be doing. 

A full win is something different. You’re charged with careless driving. The ticket goes away. It’s withdrawn. It’s like it never happened. We are successful in doing that. We do that many times any given week. But I cannot tell you that it happens for every client that walks in the door.

It does happen with some frequency and we’re very proud to be able to do that. But that does not mean that if you didn’t lose, didn’t get your ticket withdrawn completely, that you didn’t win.  Take for example, you’re charged with careless driving and we reviewed the disclosure, we found a loophole, we found a problem, we found the case that relates directly to what your mistake may have been. That mistake demonstrates to us in writing, in history of law that this is allowable and there should be no conviction. And we approached the prosecutor with that. We then approach the judge with that and everyone has agreed that; yes, you’ve been overcharged. No possible way of convicting you at all of careless, you’re actually more guilty of some minor offense that’s really not going to hurt you.

That also can be construed as a win. That is an absolute success when that happens. Many things go into getting a result like that, whether it’s completely withdrawn. Or whether or not it’s been reduced to something less. Usually if it’s reduced to something less, that really means that a client will be experiencing financial relief.

Your insurance company will not be some new multiple, you will not have to deal with a consequence of an employer who’s wondering whether they can have you drive any of their vehicles. To achieve that, any one of our staff have done this hundreds, even thousands of times, and that’s going to be, they’re going to review the disclosure, which is the actual evidence and case against you.

That disclosure is going to be compared to the case law. In particular, the case law that’s relevant to your specific set of facts, they’re gonna look for two things. They’re gonna look for the ones that relate as closely as possible to the set of facts that you come in with. They’re also gonna look for any cases that may be used against us by the prosecution.

The reason we want to know about those and find those is because we want to argue against those. We want to qualify our set of facts so that we can neutralize any attack from a prosecutor or a crown to distinguish: “No, that’s not accurate. That’s not right.” We put a shine on our own case and we highlight what really happened here, which mitigates and reduces what you’ve done, if anything, so that we can achieve that complete withdrawal. Achieve that complete dismissal, or reduce this to something that will not bother anyone in any way.