Is it worth fighting a speeding ticket in Ontario? For most people, yes — and more than it was a few years ago. According to NextLaw Analysis of Ontario Court of Justice data, Ontario's courts now withdraw about four and a half times more speeding charges than they did before the pandemic — climbing from roughly 2 in 100 to about 1 in 9 — and a growing share of tickets are being pushed all the way to a trial date. That is a rate across every charge the courts processed, not a prediction for your specific ticket, but the direction is real. Here is the part that matters most: you don't get a speeding charge withdrawn or dismissed by paying it, and rarely by winning a dramatic courtroom argument. You get there by responding within 15 days, asking for a trial instead of paying the fine, requesting the prosecution's evidence, and using the gaps in it to negotiate a withdrawal or a reduction. And the reason to bother isn't the fine — the fine is the small part. A conviction i...
By Jon Cohen, Partner at NextLaw — Ontario's stunt driving defence firm Yes — for a stunt driving charge in Ontario you should have a lawyer, and the worry that a busy firm won't give your case personal attention doesn't match how these cases actually work. A stunt driving charge under section 172 of the Highway Traffic Act is resolved in a private, one-on-one conversation with the prosecutor about your file, and only your file. Cases are never bundled together in that discussion — so whether a firm is handling one file or a thousand, in that room it is only your case, with its complete attention. Individual attention isn't a favour a firm does you; on a stunt driving charge, it's built into how the case is resolved. If you or your son or daughter has been charged, the fear is real and immediate: a licence suspended on the spot, a car towed away, and penalties that read like a criminal sentence. It's natural to look at a firm that handles a high volume of these ...