When you’re charged with Driving While Under Suspension in Ontario, you’re facing serious penalties which can dramatically impact your life.
Here are the 5 things you need to know about the penalties.
Here is the list of penalties:- Driving license suspension: 6-month suspension (mandatory)
- Fines: $1,000 to $5,000 plus 25% victim surcharge
- Probation: Up to 2 years
- Jail: Up to 6 months
The 6-month driving license suspension is mandatory.
If you get convicted of Driving While Under Suspension in Ontario, you will lose your driver’s license for 6-months.
- There are no exceptions to this rule.
- The 6-month driving suspension is written in the law.
- Even if the Prosecutor or the Justice of the Peace have sympathy for your situation, they do not have the power to remove the mandatory 6-month suspension.
The penalties are a range, not fixed.
Other than the mandatory 6-month driving suspension, the rest of the penalties are defined by the law as a range and are not fixed. For example, the fines range from $1,000 to $5,000, and there is potential jail time of up to 6 months.
- What this means is that the lawmakers that wrote the laws are giving the court the discretion to apply the penalties based on the specific facts of your case.
- So, the more serious the fact situation (for example, if you have prior convictions of Driving While Under Suspension), the more serious the penalties will be.
The Justice of the Peace decides.
If you are convicted of Driving While Under Suspension in Ontario, the Prosecutor will be seeking a penalty based on the ranges that I outlined above.
- However, the final decision maker on the penalty is the Justice of the Peace.
- Even if you have negotiated a plea agreement with the Prosecutor about your case, that agreement must be approved by the Justice of the Peace.
- Sometimes, those negotiated deals do not get approved.
You may be able to get out of the mandatory 6-month driving suspension.
While the 6-month driving suspension on conviction of Driving While Under Suspension charge in Ontario is mandatory, it may be possible to avoid this suspension. Here’s how.
- First, if there is a big error in the evidence that the Police are going to use against you, then it may be possible to get the charge withdrawn.
- Second, if the evidence against you is not strong enough to support a conviction.
- Third, if you can convince the Prosecutor that it is “not in the interest of justice” to pursue the charge against you.
