Traffic Tickets

Driving While Under Suspension

Your licence can be suspended for any of the following reasons:

Having too many demerit points on your driving record
When a fully licenced driver reaches 9 demerit points, a meeting will be scheduled for them to give reasons why their licence should not be suspended. If you do not have valid reasons or you fail to appear, your licence can be suspended. At 15 points your licence will be suspended for 30 days from the day you surrender it. Failing to surrender your licence when suspended will result in a suspension of up to 2 years.

Being convicted of a ticket that carries a licence suspension
There are many types of tickets that not only have a fine amount and demerit points, but carry a licence suspension along with them. Some of these include speeding tickets for 50 km/hr and up, Careless Driving summons, and Driving with No Insurance.

Unpaid fines
If you are convicted of a traffic ticket and do not pay the full fine in a specific amount of time, your licence will be suspended. Even if you have paid part of the fine toward your ticket, if the full amount is not received by the courts in the amount of time you were given to pay, your licence will be suspended.

Failure to respond to a ticket
If you receive a ticket and do not choose one of the options on the back (pleading guilty, pleading guilty with an explanation, or trial/not guilty) within the specific amount of time, your licence will be suspended. Traffic tickets are not the same as parking tickets and require you to respond to them to avoid your licence being suspended.

If you have not responded to a ticket or your conviction letter for a trial that has been lost in the mail, you could be driving with your licence suspended without even knowing it! For most people, if they are aware that their licence has been suspended, they would take care of it right away, but if you are unaware you could receive a Driving While Under Suspension ticket without even deserving it!

There are no demerit points attached to a Driving While Under Suspension offence, but a minimum fine of $1,000.00 and maximum fine of $5,000.00 with a mandatory 6 month licence suspension and possible jail sentence of up to 6 months to go along with the conviction, for first time offenders. Second time offenders face a maximum of $10,000.00 fine along with the licence suspension and possible jail time.