Fighting Provincial Offences Charges:

Question: What happens if you’re charged with a provincial offence in Ontario and you want to fight the allegation without creating a criminal record?

Answer: ?

Answer: Lippa Legal Services can help you understand how Ontario provincial offences work, what “quasi-criminal” means, and how the Provincial Offences Act process and Court procedures may affect your case, including the fact that a conviction for a provincial offence generally does not create a criminal record but can still lead to significant fines, potential licence impacts, and other serious consequences.  If you want practical next steps, gather your ticket and any disclosure you receive, note deadlines, and ask Lippa Legal Services to review possible defences, paperwork issues, and sentencing factors early so you can make informed choices about your options in Ontario.  To get started, call (416) 241-4529 to speak with a paralegal about your provincial offence matter in Vaughan, Toronto, and surrounding areas.

Provincial Offence Allegations as Being Charges Considered as Quasi-Criminal Matters

Provincial offences are quasi-crimes or regulatory offences in that they are violation of laws enacted to regulate individual conduct for the protection of society as a whole and they are prosecuted by a Prosecutor as an agent of the state, meaning as a representative of the people; however, unlike criminal offences, upon conviction of a provincial offence a person avoids establishing a criminal record.  With this said, although conviction for a provincial offence fails to establish a criminal record, the consequences for conviction of a provincial offence may still carry heavy penalties and consequences for the convicted person.

The Provincial Offences Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.33, as well as the Rules of the Ontario Court (Provincial Division) in Provincial Offences Proceedings, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 200, provide the procedural law that guides the process by which offences within numerous substantive law statutes are prosecuted.  The range in matters falling under the purview of provincial offences is very broad.  Concerns involving provincial offences include: