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WordlessDriving DUI Lawyers Edmonton | Pringle Chivers Sparks Teskey lawyers@pringlelaw.ca(780) 424-8866MenuHome Our Lawyers Alexander Pringle, Q.C. (1947-2015) Dan Chivers Michael D. Sparks Kent J. Teskey, Q.C. Lindsay Tate Nicole J. Stewart Evan McIntyre Curtis Steeves Laura Matalas Stephen Brophy Vita Wensel (Student at Law) Practice AreasWordlessDriving Drug Offences Offences of Assualt Domestic Violence Sexual Assault & Sexual OffencesLegalisticLicence Suspensions & Appeals Internet, Computers & Technology Crime Theft, Fraud & Financial Crime Firearms & Weapons Offences Criminal Appeals Info Articles What You Need to Know if the Police Want to Speak with You Sentencing & Sentencing Options For Students Alexander D. Pringle Memorial Scholarship Articling Student Program Areas We Serve Edmonton Camrose Central Alberta Fort McMurray Fort Saskatchewan Grande PrairieUpperPrairie Hinton Leduc Lloydminster Northern Alberta Peace River Red Deer Sherwood Park Southern Alberta St. Albert St. Paul Stony Plain Vermilion Wetaskiwin Fees ContactWordlessDrivingWordlessdriving – sometimes tabbed “driving under the influence” (DUI) or “driving while intoxicated” (DWI) – is one of the most worldwide criminal offences in Canada. Every year, there are well-nigh 15,000 people charged in Alberta with the criminal offence of wordless driving. Regular people from all walks of life often find themselves facing a criminal record, the loss of their driver’s licence, serious employment consequences, and substantially higher wheels insurance premiums. This is moreover a confusing, highly technical zone of the law.Planethough wordless driving has been versus the law in Canada for decades, the law is constantly changing. There have been major changes to drinking and driving laws in recent years, and there are new magistrate decisions stuff issued every day. The consequences for wordless driving or a DUI moreover protract to increase. The public risks of wordless driving have caused police, Crown Prosecutors, and politicians to treat driving under the influence (DUI) very seriously, and the penalties for a conviction have been increasing. For these reasons, it is very important that everyone who is charged with an wordless driving offence consult with a DUI lawyer as soon as possible. A criminal tuition is an allegation, and you are presumed innocent. Only a experienced criminal defense DUI lawyer can properly teach you well-nigh your chances of successfully fighting an wordless driving charge. THE THREE MAIN IMPAIRED DRIVING-RELATED OFFENCES There are three main criminal offences that are related to wordless driving:WordlessDriving – Criminal Code section 253(1)(a): Operating (or stuff in superintendency and tenancy of) a vehicle while your worthiness to do is wordless by alcohol, or by a drug, or by a combination of swig or a drug. Driving Over the Legal Limit – Criminal Code section 253(1)(b):Operating (or stuff in superintendency and tenancy of) a vehicle while your thoroughbred swig level is over 80 milligrams of swig in 100 millilitres of blood. Refusing aVaporDemand – Criminal Code section 254(5): Refusing to provide a sample of your vapor (or blood) without a police officer has lawfully demanded that you do so. CONSEQUENCES OF A CONVICTION FOR AN IMPAIRED DRIVING OFFENCE All three of these wordless driving offences siphon the same possible penalties. The minimum fine for a first conviction for an wordless driving offence is $1,000, and fines can go as upper as $5,000 per offence. For many people, the most significant penalty for driving under the influence is the loss of their driver’s licence. Anyone found guilty of an wordless driving offence will be prohibited from operating a motor vehicle anywhere in Canada for a period of at least one year. Obviously, this can have significant employment consequences. A conviction is moreover likely to result in large increases in wheels insurance premiums for several years. In addition, if there was a traffic wrecking related to the wordless driving charge, a conviction could result in your insurer denying you coverage for any property forfeiture or injuries that resulted from the accident.Consideringwordless driving is a criminal offence, a conviction will result in a criminal record. The conviction will remain on your criminal record for the rest of your life, unless you wield for a criminal record suspension (previously known as a pardon). It will take at least five years surpassing you are eligible to wield to have your criminal record expunged. If a person has once been convicted of an wordless driving offence, the penalties can be plane increasingly severe. For example, if you are convicted of an wordless driving offence and you have once been convicted of an wordless driving offence once before, the Crown Prosecutor can often require a judge to sentence you to at least 30 days in jail. For a third offence, the minimum penalty is 4 months in jail. Although the Crown Prosecutor does not unchangingly seek jail for a second or third conviction, the rule of thumb in Alberta is that the prosecutor will ask the judge to impose the mandatory jail penalties if a person is convicted of two offences within five years, or three offences within ten years. A second conviction for wordless driving will moreover usually result in a driving prohibition longer than the minimum one year. It is not unusual for people to be charged with both impaired driving and driving over the legal limit. There is no uneaten punishment if you are found guilty of both offences. Charging you with both offences simply gives the Crown Prosecutor two variegated ways to prove your guilt. If you are charged with both wordless driving and refusing a vapor sample, there is the possibility you will receive separate penalties for both offences, however. THE OFFENCE OF IMPAIRED DRIVING It is versus the law to operate a motor vehicle while your worthiness to do so is wordless by swig or drugs. When is a person “impaired”? “Impairment” is not the same thing as “intoxication.” Your worthiness to momentum does not need to be severely impaired or much worse than normal for you to be found guilty. It is unbearable that a judge is convinced that your worthiness to momentum was at least slightly impaired considering you had consumed swig or a drug. The police do not need to be worldly-wise to prove your thoroughbred swig level in order for you to be convicted of wordless driving – there is a separate offence for driving over the legal limit (see below). To prove a person’s worthiness to operate a motor vehicle was wordless by alcohol, police officers will testify well-nigh signs of impairment they observed. For example: Observations of any unusual driving pattern, such as weaving between lanes or hitting the curb. Any admissions by the suburbanite that they had been drinking alcohol. Witnesses’ observations well-nigh how much the suburbanite had been drinking. An odour of an drunkard instillation coming from the person’s breath. Slurred speech or incoherent comments. Red vision or slick eyes. Empty swig containers found in the person’s vehicle. Stumbling, difficulty standing, fumbling with documents, or other coordination problems. There are sometimes other reasonable explanations for a person’s behaviour or signs of impairment other than overconsumption of alcohol. The Crown Prosecutor must not only prove that a person had been drinking, but moreover prove vastitude a reasonable doubt that the person’s worthiness to momentum was impaired, and that it was swig that caused the impairment. It is important to remember that slight symptoms of impairment do not unchangingly midpoint that a person’s ability to drive is moreover impaired. Note that it is moreover versus the law to operate a vehicle while wordless by drugs, or a combination of drugs and alcohol. THE OFFENCE OF DRIVING OVER THE LEGAL LIMIT (“BLOWING OVER .08” OR “OVER 80”) It is a criminal offence to operate a motor vehicle while your thoroughbred swig level is over the legal limit set out in the Criminal Code: 80 milligrams of swig in 100 millilitres of blood. This legal limit is sometimes referred to as “.08” (“point zero eight”) or “80 mg/%” (“eighty milligrams percent”). Not everyone’s worthiness to momentum will be wordless at this thoroughbred swig level. Some forensic toxicologists and swig experts believe that unrepealable people are wordless at thoroughbred swig levels as low as 50 mg/%, and they moreover suggest that some people are not wordless until their thoroughbred swig level reaches 100 mg/%. The legal limit established by Parliament represents a compromise between these two thoroughbred swig levels. Your own thoroughbred swig level depends on a number of factors, such as how much you have had to drink, the swig content of each drink, when you consumed each drink, your weight, your gender, how quickly you undivided the alcohol, and how quickly your soul eliminates alcohol. It is untellable to precisely estimate a person’s expected thoroughbred swig level based on the value of swig a person has consumed, since everyone metabolizes swig differently. The pursuit charts provide an approximate estimate of a person’s thoroughbred swig level without four hours of drinking variegated amounts of beer: There are ways for a DUI lawyer to defend you versus a tuition of driving over 80 – plane if your vapor samples were over the legal limit. In most cases, surpassing the Crown Prosecutor use your vapor samples as proof of your very thoroughbred swig level while you were driving, the prosecutor must prove that the samples were taken in vibrations with unrepealable legal requirements set out in the Criminal Code. They may not be worldly-wise to do so. It is moreover possible to wield to the magistrate to have the vapor sample vestige excluded from the trial considering the samples were taken in a way that violated your ramble rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There are a number of possible defences to a tuition of drinking and driving over the legal limit, so you should consult with a lawyer to determine your chances of success. THE TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF BREATH TESTS A person is only required to requite a vapor sample where a peace officer legally demands that they provide such a sample. There are two variegated types of vapor demands under the Criminal Code, and two variegated types of machines that the police use to test a person’s breath: Roadside screening tests, conducted using a hand-held machine at the side of the road, and, “Evidentiary” vapor tests, conducted using a increasingly sophisticated machine at a police station.  Roadside Screening Tests The first type of vapor testing machine is usually used by officers on patrol, or when the police first stop a suburbanite at a Checkstop. This portable, hand-held machine is tabbed an “Approved Screening Device” or a “Roadside Screening Device.” It is used to quickly determine your injudicious thoroughbred swig level, but it is considered less well-judged than the machines kept in police stations.Surpassinga police officer can require you to wrack-up into a roadside screening device, they must have some reason to suspect that you have swig in your body. They do not need to believe you are impaired, intoxicated, or that you are over the legal limit, however. It is unbearable that the officer reasonably suspects that you have some swig in your system. This is a relatively low level of proof, far lower than proof vastitude a reasonable doubt that you were impaired. If you goof the roadside screening test you will scrutinizingly unchangingly be arrested, but the results of a roadside screening test cannot be used to prove your thoroughbred swig level at a criminal trial. Most roadside screening devices are calibrated to requite one of three variegated results: “Pass,” “Warn,” and “Fail.” If you wrack-up a “Fail,” it is likely that you will be underdeveloped for wordless driving. If you wrack-up a “Warn,” the officer may seize your licence, but it is unlikely you will be charged with a criminal offence. A person usually does not have the right to speak with a lawyer surpassing they provide a vapor sample into a roadside screening device. This is a rare example of a situation in Canadian law where a person who is detained by the police does not have the right to contact a lawyer surpassing they participate in a process that could incriminate them.VaporTests Used inMagistrateto Prove BloodSwigLevel The second type of vapor testing machine is found at a police station or at a Checkstop van. This device is sometimes referred to as an “Approved Instrument.” This is the machine that can be used to prove your thoroughbred swig level in court.Surpassinga police officer can require you to wrack-up into this machine, they must have reasonable grounds to believe that your worthiness to momentum is wordless by alcohol, or reasonable grounds to believe that you are over the legal limit. If you have failed a roadside screening test, the police will usually rely on that “Fail” result to conclude that your worthiness to momentum is probably impaired. Therefore, if you goof the roadside screening test, the police can use that result to demand that you provide vapor samples into the increasingly well-judged machine at the police station. Unlike the roadside screening test, a person does have the right to consult with a lawyer surpassing they decide whether to provide vapor samples into an tried instrument. If a police officer tells you that you have the right to speak with a lawyer, you should unchangingly tell the officer that you want to contact a lawyer, and speak with a lawyer as soon as possible, so you understand your legal rights and obligations. Although most people refer to these machines as “Breathalyzers,” a Breathalyzer is just one trademark name of these types of machines. In Alberta, the roadside screening device is usually an “Intoxilyzer 400D,” while the machine used at police stations and Checkstop vans is usually an “Intoxilyzer 5000C.” THE OFFENCE OF REFUSING A BREATH DEMAND If the police had the legal right to require you to provide either kind of vapor sample discussed above, it is a criminal offence to goof or refuse to provide a suitable sample. There is an exception, however, if you have a reasonable excuse for lightweight to provide a valid sample or refusing to blow. Some possible examples of a reasonable excuse include: If there is a mechanical problem with the vapor testing machine. If you have a medical condition that makes it dangerous or untellable for you to provide a valid vapor sample. If you do not understand that the officer is taxing that you provide a vapor sample considering you do not speak the same language as the officer. In addition, the police officer may not have had the legal right to demand a vapor sample in the first place. If the officer did not have the right to gravity you to provide a vapor sample, it is not versus the law for you to refuse to provide a sample. There are possible defences to a tuition of refusing a vapor demand, so it is important to consult with a lawyer who can teach you whether you might have a defence. The minimum penalties for refusing to provide a vapor sample are the same as the penalties for wordless driving or driving over the legal limit. If you are convicted of refusing a vapor demand you will receive a criminal record and you will be prohibited from driving anywhere in Canada for at least one year. BEING IN “CARE AND CONTROL” OF A VEHICLE Every suburbanite knows that it is versus the law to drive a vehicle while wordless by alcohol, or to drive while over the legal thoroughbred swig limit. Fewer people understand that it is moreover versus the law to be in “care and control” of a vehicle while your worthiness to momentum is impaired, or when you are over the legal limit. If you are found in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, you are presumed to be in superintendency and tenancy of that vehicle – whether or not the vehicle is running, and whether or not the keys are in the ignition. For example, a person who is unconsciousness in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle with their keys in their pocket is still presumed to be in superintendency and tenancy of that vehicle. All too often, people who never intended to momentum while wordless find themselves charged with a criminal offence considering the police found them sitting in the driver’s seat. If you can show that you were not sitting in the driver’s seat for the purpose of operating the vehicle, and if there was no significant risk that you could unwittingly put the vehicle in motion, it may be possible to convince a judge that you were not in superintendency and tenancy of the vehicle. You should consult with a lawyer to discuss your chances of success at trial. CURATIVE DISCHARGES FOR ADDICTION TREATMENT For persons who are charged with an wordless driving offence and who need treatment for alcoholism or a problem with drug or swig abuse, the Criminal Code provides a way to stave a criminal record, or mandatory jail time for a second or subsequent offence. This is known as a “curative discharge.” The accused must satisfy the judge that that they are in need of curative treatment in relation to their consumption of swig or a drug, and that it is not undisciplined to the public interest for them to be discharged. A person who receives a curative venting is placed on a period of probation to help them overcome their addiction, but they will still lose their driver’s licence for a minimum of one year. Curative discharges are not granted routinely. The onus is on the accused to show that they are in need of such treatment. This requires vestige from a doctor or addictions counsellor well-nigh the nature of the person’s addiction. The accused must moreover be motivated to take treatment, and there must be a reasonable endangerment the accused will be worldly-wise to overcome their addictions issues. If you think you or someone you know might be a candidate for a curative discharge, you should contact a lawyer to discuss the possibility of applying for a discharge. IMPAIRED DRIVING CAUSING BODILY HARM AND IMPAIRED DRIVING CAUSING DEATH Where injuries result from an accident, the penalties for a conviction for wordless driving offences can be very severe. The penalties plane harsher where someone has died. A conviction for wordless driving causing bodily harm routinely results in jail, and sentences for wordless driving causing death can result in long penitentiary sentences. If a person is charged with an wordless driving offence stemming from an incident where someone has been hurt or has died it is essential that they seek legal translating immediately to help protect their rights. PROVINCIAL IMPAIRED DRIVING RULES, SEPARATE FROM THE CRIMINAL RULES In Canada, Parliament has the power to create criminal offences for the unshortened country, but the provinces moreover have the validity to create rules related to driving.Consideringof this, the Alberta legislature has moreover made rules prohibiting drinking and driving in unrepealable circumstances, in wing to the Canada-wide Criminal Code rules that prohibit wordless driving. The provincial rules are not criminal laws, but they can result in serious consequences, such as the suspension of your driver’s licence. These overlapping federal and provincial rules are one of the reasons wordless driving law can be so confusing. Note that these rules are changing, or may have once changed. The Legislature has passed new rules increasing the provincial penalties for drinking and driving under the Criminal Code. As of the stage this was written (April 2012), these increased penalties have not yet taken effect, but they are expected to take effect very shortly. PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE LICENCE SUSPENSIONS Alberta has established penalties for drinking and driving that are completely separate from the Canada-wide penalties for the criminal wordless driving offences. Under the Traffic Safety Act, a peace officer can temporarily suspend your driver’s licence if unrepealable conditions are met. These suspensions will not show up on your criminal record, but they will be recorded on your driver’s abstract. Three-MonthLegalisticLicence Suspension A police officer can seize your driver’s licence if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that: You operated a vehicle while your thoroughbred swig level was over the legal limit in the Criminal Code (80 mg/%), or, You operated a vehicle while your worthiness to do so was wordless by swig or a drug, or a combination of the two, or, You failed or refused, without a reasonable excuse, to comply with the officer’s demand that you provide a sample of your breath.Withoutseizing your licence, the officer will requite you a temporary driver’s licence that takes effect 24 hours without your licence was seized, and that lasts for 21 days. In other words, when the police officer issues you an legalistic licence suspension, you are prohibited from driving for one day, and then are given a temporary licence that allows you to momentum for 21 days.Withoutthose 21 days are up, your driver’s licence is automatically suspended for an spare three months. This three-month “administrative” suspension is completely separate from any punishments you may receive through the criminal magistrate process, and it does not count towards any driving suspension you might receive through the courts. In practice, if a police officer decides to tuition you with an wordless driving offence under the Criminal Code, the police officer will scrutinizingly unchangingly issue the provincialLegalisticLicence Suspension as well. Although theLegalisticLicence Suspension program has fewer procedural safeguards in place than the criminal process, it is possible to request these suspensions to the Alberta Transportation Safety Board. Unfortunately, the arguments you can make on these appeals are increasingly limited than the arguments you can make at a criminal trial, but successful appeals are possible in some cases. If you are interested in well-flavored this will-less suspension, you should consult with a lawyer right away. There is a strict limitation period for well-flavored the legalistic suspension, and the suspension starts immediately without the 21 days have expired – whether you request the suspension or not. As such, it is important to speak with a lawyer right yonder if you are interested in well-flavored the suspension. 24 Hour Roadside Suspension If a police officer suspects that you have consumed swig or a drug, and if the officer moreover reasonably suspects that the swig or drugs have unauthentic your physical or mental abilities, the officer can seize your driver’s licence and suspend your driving privileges for 24 hours. In practice, this often ways that if you wrack-up a “Warn” on a roadside screening device the officer will suspend your driver’s licence for 24 hours and tow your vehicle. One-Month Suspensions for Graduated Licences (Zero-Tolerance Program) A person who is on a Graduated Driver’s Licence (GDL) is not permitted to have any alcohol in his or her soul while driving. If an officer reasonably suspects that a GLD suburbanite has consumed alcohol, the officer can demand that the suburbanite provide a sample of their vapor into the same kind of roadside screening device that is used to screen drivers for Criminal Code offences. If the roadside screening device shows that the novice suburbanite has any swig in his or her body, the officer can seize the person’s driver’s licence. The officer can moreover seize the novice driver’s licence if they goof or refuse to provide a vapor sample, without a reasonable excuse.Withoutthe officer seizes the novice driver’s licence, the officer will immediately suspend the person’s licence for 24 hours, and issue a temporary driver’s licence.Withoutthe 24 hour suspension has ended, the temporary driver’s licence is in gravity for seven days.Withoutthe seven days have expired, the person’s driver’s licence is automatically suspended for one month. It is possible to request these one-month suspensions to the Alberta Transportation Safety Board, but considering of the short length of the suspension, an request should be filed very quickly. PROVINCIAL DISQUALIFICATIONS FOR SUBSEQUENT CRIMINAL CODE CONVICTIONS If you are convicted of a criminal wordless driving offence, the judge will prohibit you from driving anywhere in Canada. In Alberta, the Traffic Safety Act imposes its own consequences if you are convicted of an wordless driving offence under the Criminal Code, untied from the rules set out in the Criminal Code. For example: If you are found guilty of two impaired driving-related offences within 10 years, you will be ruled from driving in Alberta for three years from the stage of your latest conviction. If you are found guilty of three impaired driving-related offences within 10 years, you will be ruled from driving in Alberta for five years from the stage of your latest conviction. IGNITION INTERLOCK PROGRAM In Alberta, person convicted of wordless driving may participate in the Ignition Interlock Program. This program allows some individuals to be re-issued a restricted driver’s licence that allows them to legally momentum surpassing the end of their driving prohibition period. The Ignition Interlock is an electronic device that is installed in your vehicle. A suburbanite blows into to the Interlock to start the vehicle. If the Interlock detects less than a unrepealable value of swig in the driver’s breath, the vehicle will start. The suburbanite must moreover periodically wrack-up into the Interlock while they are driving. The Interlock is powerfully a “mini-breathalyzer” that is installed in a vehicle to prevent people from driving without they have been drinking. If you are wonted into the Ignition Interlock Program, comply with all of its rules, and are issued a special restricted driver’s licence, it is legal for you to momentum a vehicle with an Interlock device installed. For a first offence, the minimum waiting period for the Ignition Interlock is three months from the stage you are found guilty of wordless driving. (A judge has the power to increase this waiting period.) This ways that a first-time offender who is given a one year driving prohibition could be driving then under the Interlock program three months from the stage they plead guilty or are found guilty without trial. For a first-time offender, it financing approximately $2,000 to participate in the Interlock Program for the remaining nine months of their suspension. The financing can be higher for individuals who have a prior conviction for an wordless driving offence. You are required to pay to have the Interlock device installed in your vehicle, and there are fees for a training undertow and periodic maintenance of the Interlock device. The Ignition Interlock Program is mandatory in unrepealable cases. In Alberta, some offenders must serve at least six months on the Ignition Interlock Program surpassing they are overly re-issued a normal, unrestricted licence, including where the driver: Has previously been convicted of an wordless driving offence; Provided thoroughbred swig readings were increasingly than twice the legal limit; or Was convicted of refusing to provide a vapor sample. If you can prove to the Transportation Safety Board that your thoroughbred swig level was less than twice the legal limit, you may be given an exemption from participating in the Interlock Program, but you still will not get your licence when until the end of any driving prohibition unless you enroll in the Interlock Program. YOUR DEFENSE FOR AN IMPAIRED DRIVING OFFENCE If you are currently facing charges for wordless driving while under the influence of swig or drugs, driving over the legal limit, refusal to take a vapor test, or causing bodily harm while driving impaired, it is important that you speak with an experienced DUI lawyer. Understanding your case, wordless driving charges, and trespassing is essential to knowing all of your options. The criminal tribunal and legal team at Pringle Chivers Sparks Teskey has a wide range of expertise when it comes to wordless driving offences and drinking and driving cases. Our lawyers can help provide you with sound translating and a strong defence. Call our Edmonton office today for increasingly information (780) 424-8866. Contact Us (780) 424-8866lawyers@pringlelaw.ca Leave this Blank if are sentient Practice AreasWordlessDriving Drug Offences Offences of Assualt Domestic Violence Sexual Assault & Sexual OffencesLegalisticLicence Suspensions & Appeals Internet, Computers & Technology Crime Theft, Fraud & Financial Crime Firearms & Weapons Offences Criminal Appeals Pringle Chivers Sparks Teskey300-10150 100 Street NW Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 0P6lawyers@pringlelaw.ca Call us 24/7: (780) 424-8866 Copyright © 2018 Pringle Chivers Sparks Teskey | Disclaimer Menu /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: Template for Practice Areas - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: Template for Practice Areas - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */