ART CARTY & PETER FAWCETT RESTORE ANTIQUE & LATE MODEL CARS 1937 BUICK For the professional restorations on Antique Cars Contact: FAWCETT MOTOR CARRIAGE CO. 106 PALMERSTON AVE. WHITBY (416) 668-4446 Tor. line 686-1412 INSU'RANCE COSTS SOARING! Before you renew your Auto or Home insurance Cali and Compare... For a complete insurance review, Call and arrange a mutually convenient appointment... Of course there is no obligation PETER DILELLO 24 RESOLUTE CRESCÉNT, WHITBY 666-2090CN AUTO-HOME-LIFE-GROUP-DISABILITY-RRSP Some 'Pointts'on fighting that traffic ticket in court By DONNA DONALDSON Friday afternoon in Whitby. The traffic is its usual congested self as you make your way down Dundas St. Suddently you look in your rear- view mirror and. you're being waved over to the side of the road by a Durham Regional police of- ficer. Uh oh. What did I do? The officer approaches your car, asks for your driver's license, in- forms you of your charge and issues a ticket. You're angry. You disagree. You decide to fight the ticket. You can do it yourself or hire a lawyer. Or hire an ex-cop. Ron Prestage is a former Toronto police officer, and owner of Pointts (Provincial Offences Information and Traffic Ticket Services). Pointts, located at 249 King St. E., Oshawa, is a paralegal business ("We're not lawyers") established to help motorists by offering affor- dable representation for traffic violations. "An officer issues a ticket based on facts at that time. People don't always agree with what an officer is alleging is wrong. People have a right to go to court," says Prestage. Prestage served on the Toronto Police Force traffic division for 12 years, and was specially trained to investigate fatal accidents and in radar. "On the police force I was in court every day. People are afraid of the court system, they don't know how to defend themselves. The knowledge I. have from the police force helps me service people here," he says. RON PRESTAGE, a former police officer, conducts a paralegal service known as Pointts. There are 17 Pointts franchises across Ontario. Free Press photo Pointts was established three years ago by Brian Laurie, a for- mer Toronto police officer, and now has 17 franchises across Ontario, with one in Edmonton and Van- couver. All are owned and operated by former police officers with ex- perience in traffic division, and are also members of the Ontario Paralegal Association. Motorists who require Prestage's help can set up an appointment for a no-fee consultation. He will then go over all the in- formation of his client's charge, and re-investigate the circumstan- ces in order to best advise them as to what alternatives they have. "I send some people across the street to pay their ticket," says Prestage, noting the convenient location of the courthouse. "If an offieer gives a person a break on the street, you may as well pay the fine," he says. Prestage says the fine isn't always the motorist's major con- cern- but the accumulation of demerit points. An accumulation of 15 demerit points will result in license suspension for 30 days. For representation in court, Prestage has two basic fees: $155 for a minor charge and $265 for a major charge. The fees are small to a person who may have license suspension at risk. A conviction of some charges, such as careless driving, could mean a substantial increase in in- surance, sometimes as high as 50 per cent. Careless driving is driving without due care or attention, and driving without reasonable con- sideration of others driving on the highway. Careless driving charges also result in an accumulation of six demerit points. "We're not lawyers" "We lose sometimes, but we have a high completion rate of 75-80 per cent," says Prestage. He also handles out-of-town driving charges for people in the Durham Region, to save local people time and travelling. In 1984, the Pointts paralegals were charged for misreprenstation by the Law Society of Upper Canada, for acting as lawyers. An appeal was heard in 1986, and in March, 1987, the Supreme Court of Ontario ruled unanimously in the paralegals' favor, that they were doing the same job as a lawyer, and they were qualified to be servicing an area of the public that hadn't been serviced before. -77- uc isr 26f 1987 ý s % . 1 1 1 1 ý qý