Arahant

Hey Guys,

Looking for a recommendation for a good lawyer for a friend of mine who got a No Insurance ticket a few weeks ago, he has a court date next month.

My friend has 2 cars and one he only uses for the winter, and one he uses for the summer... he was driving his summer car which is insured, but it broke down and had to be put into the shop, however he had an important meeting a fair ways away the next day.. so he decided to take his winter vehicle.

The winter vehicle had a insurance slip from the fall that showed it was good until sept of this year(it was just an old slip).. my friend doesn't condone driving without insurance and doesn't do it regularly, he did have insurance on his main car, but he figured that if he got pulled over he could just show that slip and be ok. As it turns out his plate was scanned by a police car that had the ability to check to see if there is actual insurance on the car... the police officer informed him he was one of only a few cars in all of ontario with that ability.

In hindsight he should have just called the insurance company and gotten insurance put on it that day, but all the times in the past its always taken a few days to have insurance switched over.. but it is possible to get same day coverage if you ask apparently.

Just my friends luck, on the one day he drives his second car without insurance, he runs into the ONE car of a few in all of ontario that can tell on the spot, and he wouldnt have even been scanned if traffic didn't make him stop right beside where the cop was on the side of the road.

So anyways, yeah... please just looking for comments on a good lawyer for this, not looking to get it thrown out but if I could get the charge lowered to a lesser charge I'd be happy, even if i had to pay the 5,000$ fine... I'm ok with that but need something less offensive to my insurance company.

Please not looking for bashing as my friend won't be reading this anyways, but I said I'd help him look for a lawyer as I seen that thread that's up right now on someone beating a speeding ticket and lawyer recommendations in that thread. I would have posted in that thread but I figure No Insurance is abit of a different thing and might need a more special lawyer.

Thanks guys!

Adamant1971

Call this guy for a consultation. If he takes it it won't be cheap. But your friend needs this dropped, not pleaded down.

Ian J. Collins
Barrister and Solicitor
Manulife Centre
44 Charles Street West
Suite 1806
Toronto ON M4Y 1R7
Tel: 416.816.9455
Fax: 416.921.5515

But you may need someone more local to the court house.

donuts

As far as I know he did not break any laws. You need to have valid insurance, which he did. For example you can drive and uninsured vehicle (a friends car for example), as long as you have your own insurance and the pink slip.

I'm not sure if he told the officer this or not, but it is reverse onus on the driver to prove he is insured. He could have satisfied he officer by showing his other pink slip.

The issue for him would be with insurance if he cashed the uninsured car. The insurance company would likely deny the claim because they know he took that specific car off insurance. I do believe he is in compliance with the compulsory insurance act for 3rd party liability.

I would have him bring proof of insurance to the crown at his first appearance and they should drop the charge or at least plead to the no pink slip charge rather than the no insurance charge.

boman993

There is this recent thread with some contacts or at least you can PM people for contacts...:

https://rennlist.com/forums/rennlist...t-and-won.html

Pags993

Donuts give the op's original posting a read again. The vehicle did not have ins as he took it off the winter vehicle. The slip always states 1 year expiry but the actual policy was not in effect at the time he was pulled over, that's an automatic court appearance. Hopefully it works out but this one will be very expensive either way.

cstyles

LOL not that its matters, but you messed up your story in the 6th paragraph. Good luck to you and your 'friend'. Hope you're able to find a reasonable resolution

ronnie993tt

Nice catch.

Bacura

Agree with Pags. He wasn't insured at the time he was pulled over. If he would have killed someone he would not have been insured. Good luck beating this one.

Turbojamie

LOL great catch.

TurboS

I've forwarded this to my lawyer that has done some pretty incredible things in the past, will PM you if he can help.

Imo000

When I need insurance on my cars I just call the insurance company and they transfer it at that moment then they email my the 30 day slip. Did this for the Rennlist fall drives many times. Your friend was lazy, gambled and lost. Time to man up any pay for the screup.

Also, pretty much all police cars now have the plate scanning cameras. They had them for sometime now and since the MTO database was linked with the insurance companies, they know if you have insurance too. This isn't new or only 4 police cars have it either.

molson cdn

I have a close friend who paid $25,000 to get his 21 year old son off a drinking and driving charge. If your interested, I will get the lawyers name for you. Pm me.
Hope everything works out.

Arahant

Thanks for help.

Also its not the plate scanning that is only on a few cars its the direct link to see insurance, I don't see why the officer would make that up doesn't do him any good.

If you look it up all you will find is information about how police don't have access to insurance information... there is nothing about how they now do...
for the longest time its been in the news how police don't have this ability, apparently because its to expensive.. the most recent article I read was from 2013, and I couldnt find anything newer
so I would assume based on what this police officer said that they now have a limited roll-out of this system that see's insurance information.

If I had to pay 25,000$ and still lost the case I think I'd go crazy.

Thanks Adamant, this happened down in toronto and the courthouse is in toronto so, I'll check that out.

Thanks TurboS let me know if he can help.

Based on my experience, and with what I'v seen from other peoples cases on a wide range of things... there is a very good chance this can lowered to a lesser charge if I agree to pay the 5k fine. The canadian legal system is all about saving time and making deals. Pretty much every legal case I'v ever heard of involving friends or family, and myself, have all involved deals or them beating it. No guarantee of course I'll just have to see.

donuts

Maybe I was confusing in my first reply. Let me try to clarify.

Insurance companies want you to insure every vehicle (for many reasons, including calculating risk and of course charging you more per vehicle). However, to satisfy the law (police) you simply have to prove you have a valid insurance policy. If I'm driving a friends vehicle or have just purchased a vehicle I can satisfy the law by surrendering a valid pink slip with my name on it. It does not need to be for that vehicle. This is called uninsured vehicle policy and is for rental cars, newly purchased vehicles (7 days) and using someone else's car (insured or not). This coverage is for liability and to satisfy the law.

Of course insurance companies do not want you to abuse this policy because they charge you extra for every vehicle you own.

In your specific case you both agreed not to drive your vehicle while in storage. If you smashed the car they could successfully argue not to pay for repair. However I believe you have still satisfied the law by having a policy and you would also likely be covered for 3rd party liability while driving uninsured vehicles (unless of course your specific storage policy states you are not covered).

I hope this is clear. You have not broken the law. You might have violated your policy details but not the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act.

molson cdn

Something esle to think about.

ask your insurance company if they will back date your insurance policy.
if they say yes, case closed, no big expenses.