When you are charged or given a traffic ticket after an accident
Some seriously injured victims are not charged of an offence because of sympathy by a police officer. However, there are other seriously injured victims who were charged or "over-charged" unreasonably. If you simply plead guilty and pay your ticket, not only you may get extra demerit points on your record, and may pay higher insurance premiums as a result, it is important to consider that you may also face difficulty in suing for your injuries and damages.
For serious or catastrophic injury cases, it is important to discuss with a qualified lawyer as soon as you received a ticket because you do not have a lot of time to respond. You need to understand the consequences. You need to know if the charges were fair or you were over-charged. Being over-charged is when you are charged for a more serious offence that you may not be guilty of, such as being charged for "careless driving" when all you did was having poor judgement in that one instant when you made a left hand turn in front of traffic. That is usually not sufficient to convict you of careless driving.
Pleading guilty to some offences may seriously prejudice your claim against another party who may have contributed to the accident, despite the fact that you may have contributed to it too. Pleading guilty may be used to argue that you admitted 100% fault when you could not have had a chance to question the other driver as to his or her possible faults, such as excessive speeds through an intersection which significantly increased the degrees of your injuries. Pleading guilty to driving without insurance may wipe out your claims even if you might have justifications in law to challenge the charge. Pleading guilty to driving without a valid driver's license, or pleading guilty that you were not authorized by law to drive a vehicle may bar you from some very important claims exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars, when in fact you may have good, proper and lawful legal arguments to avoid being found guilty.
The law may seem to be obvious to you, but it is not so obvious to an experienced lawyer because there are many legal questions that have to be examined and researched before conclusion, including for example: What exactly was the law as at the date of the alleged offence? Has the written law been modified such that the way it reads now is not the way it read then, on the date of the alleged offence years ago? What have the judges in the caselaw said over the past decades about the meaning of the alleged offence, and the applicable legal test before conviction? What other possible facts that should be researched and established, such as was there a strike by the governmental ministry at the time such that some routine notices were not sent out to remind you to renew your license, etc...? An experienced and committed lawyer has the best chance of actually taking the time to analyze and carry out these investigations to protect your interests. If a lawyer seems to always be in a hurry to you, chances are they will not take the time, nor have the interest or knowledge to begin such investigations.
If you are charged under the Criminal Code of Canada for an offence such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm arising out of a car accident, pleading guilty or being found guilty may mean that you may not later contest the issue of whether or not you were negligent in causing the accident. You may lose more than some of your important accident benefits such as income loss, but you may also lose your right to sue in tort for damages altogether.
Some seriously injured victims are not charged of an offence because of sympathy by a police officer. However, there are other seriously injured victims who were charged or "over-charged" unreasonably. If you simply plead guilty and pay your ticket, not only you may get extra demerit points on your record, and may pay higher insurance premiums as a result, it is important to consider that you may also face difficulty in suing for your injuries and damages.
For serious or catastrophic injury cases, it is important to discuss with a qualified lawyer as soon as you received a ticket because you do not have a lot of time to respond. You need to understand the consequences. You need to know if the charges were fair or you were over-charged. Being over-charged is when you are charged for a more serious offence that you may not be guilty of, such as being charged for "careless driving" when all you did was having poor judgement in that one instant when you made a left hand turn in front of traffic. That is usually not sufficient to convict you of careless driving.
Pleading guilty to some offences may seriously prejudice your claim against another party who may have contributed to the accident, despite the fact that you may have contributed to it too. Pleading guilty may be used to argue that you admitted 100% fault when you could not have had a chance to question the other driver as to his or her possible faults, such as excessive speeds through an intersection which significantly increased the degrees of your injuries. Pleading guilty to driving without insurance may wipe out your claims even if you might have justifications in law to challenge the charge. Pleading guilty to driving without a valid driver's license, or pleading guilty that you were not authorized by law to drive a vehicle may bar you from some very important claims exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars, when in fact you may have good, proper and lawful legal arguments to avoid being found guilty.
The law may seem to be obvious to you, but it is not so obvious to an experienced lawyer because there are many legal questions that have to be examined and researched before conclusion, including for example: What exactly was the law as at the date of the alleged offence? Has the written law been modified such that the way it reads now is not the way it read then, on the date of the alleged offence years ago? What have the judges in the caselaw said over the past decades about the meaning of the alleged offence, and the applicable legal test before conviction? What other possible facts that should be researched and established, such as was there a strike by the governmental ministry at the time such that some routine notices were not sent out to remind you to renew your license, etc...? An experienced and committed lawyer has the best chance of actually taking the time to analyze and carry out these investigations to protect your interests. If a lawyer seems to always be in a hurry to you, chances are they will not take the time, nor have the interest or knowledge to begin such investigations.
If you are charged under the Criminal Code of Canada for an offence such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm arising out of a car accident, pleading guilty or being found guilty may mean that you may not later contest the issue of whether or not you were negligent in causing the accident. You may lose more than some of your important accident benefits such as income loss, but you may also lose your right to sue in tort for damages altogether.