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By Jon Cohen, Partner at NextLaw — Ontario's stunt driving defence firm Here's the short answer most search results won't give you straight: no, you do not need a paralegal or law firm "near the courthouse" to fight a stunt driving charge in Ontario. Your case is heard in the court for the municipality where you were charged — not where you live, and not where your representative's office sits. Since 2021, Ontario's provincial offences courts run these matters by video and phone, so a licensed representative can act for you in any court in the province, from Toronto to Ottawa to Windsor to Thunder Bay. What actually changes the outcome on a section 172 charge isn't a postal code. It's stunt-specific experience and real working relationships with the Crowns who prosecute these files. "Local" is a leftover idea from a world that no longer exists. If you've just been charged with stunt driving, one of the first instincts is to search for...
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PLACEHOLDER_WILL_REPLACE https://www.nextlaw.ca/?p=36169
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https://youtu.be/y32Yn8hrEsA By Jon Cohen, Partner at NextLaw — Ontario's stunt driving defence firm Here's the short answer the search results keep getting wrong: a stunt driving charge in Ontario is always handled in court — but you, personally, usually are not. A stunt driving charge under section 172 of the Highway Traffic Act arrives as a Part 3 summons with a court date on it, and your representative attends the early court dates for you: the first appearance, receiving and reviewing the Crown's disclosure, and the pre-trial discussions where most of these cases are resolved. In most cases you won't set foot in a courtroom yourself unless your case goes all the way to a trial. If you've just been charged, this is one of the first fears that hits — the image of standing up in a courtroom, in front of a judge, trying to explain yourself. It doesn't help that the search results contradict each other: some pages say you "must attend court," others sa...
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Written by Jon Cohen, Partner at NextLaw, Ontario's speeding ticket law firm, based in Toronto and representing drivers in every court in Ontario. Published September 2, 2026 · Last updated September 2, 2026. Current as of September 2026; Ontario law only. How bad are 4 demerit points for an Ontario speeding ticket? Four demerit points is the serious end of an ordinary Ontario speeding ticket, but for a fully licensed driver it is still well short of losing your licence. You need 15 points to be suspended, and you get a warning letter at 6. Two things almost nobody explains. If you are a G1 or G2 driver, a single 4-point conviction can trigger a suspension on its own, even on a first ticket. And either way, the points are not the real cost: insurers rate the conviction behind the ticket, and a 30-to-49-over conviction is a more serious speeding conviction that could affect your insurance for up to three years, long after the points are gone. Four demerit points is added for driving...
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Written by Jon Cohen, Partner at NextLaw, a speeding ticket law firm based in Toronto representing drivers in every court in Ontario. Licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. Published August 28, 2026 · Last updated August 28, 2026 · Ontario, Canada. Current as of August 2026; traffic law and penalties can change. How bad are 3 demerit points in Ontario? The short answer For a fully licensed Ontario driver, 3 demerit points are close to harmless on their own. It takes 15 points to lose your licence, and you don't even get a warning letter until 6. So a single 3-point ticket doesn't put your licence anywhere near the edge. Here is the part almost nobody explains: the points are not what costs you money. Insurers don't price your premium on your demerit points. They price the conviction behind the ticket, sorted as minor, major, or serious. And that conviction could raise your rates for up to three years, long after the points are gone. "How many points" is the wrong...
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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...
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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 ...
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