Ontario · Fail to Remain · Hamilton
Fail to Remain Charge in Hamilton
Charged with fail to remain after a collision on the Linc, the Red Hill, or a Hamilton street? This carries 7 demerit points — the maximum for any single offence in Ontario — plus jail exposure. Understand what's actually at stake before you do anything else.
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Fail to Remain in Hamilton — how it actually works
A fail-to-remain charge under s.200 of the Highway Traffic Act can follow a collision anywhere in Hamilton — on the 403 with the OPP, or on the Linc, the Red Hill, or a city street with Hamilton Police Service. Either way, the file is prosecuted at 50 Main Street East, and there is no fine to simply pay. You're served with a summons and the matter goes to court.
This is one of the most serious Highway Traffic Act charges: 7 demerit points, the maximum for any single offence, a licence suspension of up to two years, and jail exposure of up to six months. How fail-to-remain charges are defended in Ontario covers the full penalty structure and the knowledge-based defences that actually work.
Given the tighter merges and lower posted limits on the Linc and Red Hill compared to the 403, a fair number of Hamilton files turn on whether the contact was genuinely perceptible — damage photographs and their location on the vehicle are usually central to that question.
In our experience
Several of the Hamilton fail-to-remain files we see arise from tight merges on the Red Hill or the Linc, where a low-speed touch is genuinely easy to miss. Whether contact was actually perceptible from the driver's seat is usually the live question.
What clients in Hamilton say
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Fail to Remain in Hamilton — questions we get
How many demerit points is fail to remain in Hamilton?
Seven — the maximum for any single offence under the Ontario demerit system, whether the matter is heard in Hamilton or elsewhere in the province. For a fully licensed driver, 15 points results in suspension.
Where is a Hamilton fail-to-remain charge heard?
Hamilton Provincial Offences Court at 50 Main Street East, Suite 110. This is a Part III charge — heard on a summons, not paid off a ticket, whichever service laid it.
Is fail to remain in Hamilton a criminal charge?
Not under s.200 of the Highway Traffic Act — that's a provincial offence. The Criminal Code has a separate, more serious failure-to-stop offence under s.320.16. Which one is laid depends on the circumstances, particularly whether an intent to avoid liability is alleged.
Related pages
This may not be the whole picture — here's how we handle other charges in Hamilton, and how Fail to Remain plays out in other Ontario cities.