lawyer
- Thread starter waldo
- Start date
if all you got was a 24 hour suspension then you've got nothing to be concerned about regarding the law (icbc is another matter). however, if you got a 24 hour suspension AND they took you into the police station to blow on the big machine AND you blew over the limit there, then indeed you do have a problem that will require the best help you can get
if they DIDN'T take you into the station, then any old ambulance chaser can get you off, because the results blown into the roadside devices are not admissable in court due to the lack of proper control samples and the inherent inaccuracy of those devices
icbc will PRETEND to not agree with the inadmissibility of the roadside devices, and they will try to be a sorry pain in your arse for frickin' YEARS after the event before they let go of it - here is where you will need a lawyer to serve THEM with papers to quit harassing you and to cease and desist in their efforts to attempt to get you to pay increased rates as though you had actually been charged with dd, even though you weren't
Harry Hunter in North Vancouver (firm should be Ardagh Hunter Turner). He specializes in impaired driving cases. He'll ask you some questions on the phone, and he'll tell you exactly what he thinks your chances are, and then you can decide whether to go in and have a more formal meeting with him or not.
A 24 hour is a provincial charge...not a big deal if that is all you got. If you were charged with impaired, or care and control, or driving over .08, you better lawyer up. Your chances are good with a lawyer, depending on how good the lawyer is, but moreso on how good the cop is. If the cop knew what he/she was doing (which is pretty complex), you're f'd no matter who you retain...eg. Nickleback's Chad Kroeger met up w/ a pretty smart cop....no matter how much he paid the lawyer, the gig was up from the get-go.
It also depends on what you blew. If you blew .09%, your lawyer could get an expert to testify to the accuracy of the breathalyser and it's variance - even if the police officer crossed his T's and dotted his i's. Again, if all it was was a 24 hours suspension, it's not a big deal (I'm surpised they even give those out anymore, what with the new rules for a "warn").
Here's a suggestion from someone whose best friend lost his wife and children's mother to a drunk driver.
Don't drink and drive! :doh::frusty::crazy:
^ thisHere's a suggestion from someone whose best friend lost his wife and children's mother to a drunk driver.
Don't drink and drive! :doh::frusty::crazy:
Smarten the eff up
^^^^^ Read it, learn it. To the OP; Got caught? Too bad, you knew the risk. I also lost a friend to drunk driving, and the driver that hit him was just over the limit, so it doesn't take much. Learn from this, as it's going to be pretty expensive. Lucky you didn't kill someone. :fear:Here's a suggestion from someone whose best friend lost his wife and children's mother to a drunk driver.
Don't drink and drive! :doh::frusty::crazy:
Don't Drink and Drive.
What the guys said. One of my buddies nearly died a few years ago when he got hit by an asshole who didn't want to spend ten bucks on a cab to get home. Drinking and driving is fucking stupid.
They can give you a 24 hour even if you blow BELOW the legal limit. Legal limit according to the Criminal Code of Canada is .08% Same as all these new BC rules.....they are for people who blow between .05 na .07%, but the police often use them for people who blow .08 or over as it's quicker than a criminal charge.
Would the 3 or 4 posters above me claim they never drive after 1 or 2 glasses of wine?
Would the 3 or 4 posters above me claim they never drive after 1 or 2 glasses of wine?
Actually I would. Only night I have alcohol is Wednesday nights when we spend about about 3-4 hrs at the bar. After my second beer the waitresses bring me milk as they know I'm the driver (it's a running gag) if I order a third my keys are going to our friend who doesn't drink at all (sXe guy doesn't have a car), cause my intentions are now to get smashed. This has been routine for the past year. The 5 yrs prior to that I wasn't going out anywhere, and the 5 yrs before that I lived in banff where you don't need your car for getting around town
I will however cop to driving high as a kid, which was fucking stupid and I did smarten the eff up. And no I don't use my cell while driving - do have a gps though.
So you do drive maybe once per week, after having 2 drinks.....depending on your size that could put you into the .05%-.07% range - which is under the limit as defined by the Criminal Code. You guys were bashing the original poster, but if a 24 hours is all he got he could easily have just had a couple beer.
200lbs 2 beers and 4-5 dozen wings from 6pm till 10. I highly doubt I'd blow over as this is a big drinking night around here and I've been pulled over multiple times.
Edit: and by pulled over I'm referring to the random check spots that randomly pop up as there have been too many fatal accidents on the road back to camp.
Also consider that the liver will break down about half a pint in an hour. 2 beers at a really slow rate of consumption will only last you till 730 ish (start at roughly 6). So by the time we leave at 10 most of the alcohol has been broken down by then.
Edit: and by pulled over I'm referring to the random check spots that randomly pop up as there have been too many fatal accidents on the road back to camp.
Also consider that the liver will break down about half a pint in an hour. 2 beers at a really slow rate of consumption will only last you till 730 ish (start at roughly 6). So by the time we leave at 10 most of the alcohol has been broken down by then.
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There's really no point in continuing to either a)trash the OP or b) continue what we've been discussing until the OP gives more background information. I know for a fact that officers will give out 24 hour prohibitions without even bothering to make you blow into the roadside screening device (happened to me in '96). For all we know, he could be 300 lbs, and only inhaled the smell of alcohol as he got into his car in front of a bar (deliberate exaggeration for effect).
I don't drink. I'm lucky because I come from a family of alcoholics but I'm not. (I guess I was lucky and the gene skipped me).
I can't even stand to be around people who are drinking heavily as it brings back too many bad memories of ruined Christmas's or family gatherings because a couple of my uncles or aunts would get wasted then start fighting.
I don't. When I was in my very early 20's my friend was killed by a drunk driver that thought that she on'y had a few glasses of wine at a dinner party. She apparently crossed the yellow line and hit my friend head on. He died of his injuries 4 days later...fuckin horrible. So, yeah...I don't.
Gotta agree with the don't fucking drive people.
Seriously your willing to spend $200 in the bar to get hammered but a $20 cab home is to much ! "Well then I won't have my car when I get up" Hey now a days they have a service that takes you home AND they have somebody drive your car home for ya too. Personally speaking drinking and driving is just stupid but then probably half my income is from being paid to drive my truck for work so me getting an impaired will also get me fired.
Why risk it ? Honestly if your drunk and kill somebody with your car you should be charged and sentenced for murder or manslaughter at the least. Driving drunk is no different then shooting a gun off around a crowd of people both are machines that when used stupidly can kill people.
Seriously your willing to spend $200 in the bar to get hammered but a $20 cab home is to much ! "Well then I won't have my car when I get up" Hey now a days they have a service that takes you home AND they have somebody drive your car home for ya too. Personally speaking drinking and driving is just stupid but then probably half my income is from being paid to drive my truck for work so me getting an impaired will also get me fired.
Why risk it ? Honestly if your drunk and kill somebody with your car you should be charged and sentenced for murder or manslaughter at the least. Driving drunk is no different then shooting a gun off around a crowd of people both are machines that when used stupidly can kill people.
Well, you're on a different level. Most people who drink socially will still drive after 1 or 2. Dinner date, having 1 beer after work, etc. My main point was that we don't know enough about the OP's situation to be crapping down his throat. He may have only had one and not been made to blow.
The person that "thought she only had a few glasses" may have had a bottle and a half. Everyone downplays how much they've had when the get pulled over. Even if it was "just a few", that's a different story than 1 or 2. As I said above, the OP was only given a 24 hours suspension....they were not handled with the new rules. This person may have been well below the .05% threshold. We just don't know enough about the situation. Commendable of you to not drive after even 1, but most people do, and it is generally considered safe even by the experts. That's why there are levels at where you get a "warn" or a "fail". I'm sorry about your friend.
This thread isn't about someone spending $200 on booze and getting obliterated. Again, we don't have enough background from the original poster. If the guy only got a 24 hour suspension, then he probably didn't have much at all. Hell, for all we know this could be about cold medication making him drowsy and getting pulled over.
Also, with the recent court decision, people should be happy. It means that if someone blows .08% or over, they will be charged criminally instead of getting fined under the new BC provincial rules. The new rules and punishments were meant for people in the .05% - .07% range, but the police have been using them for alot of people who blow over .08% because it's alot less time and paperwork. The result has been alot of people who previously would have been criminally charged have only been charged with what is a British Columbia Motor Vehicle Act violation.
Personally, I think the emphasis has changed from getting drunken idiots off the road and into jail to suspending the licenses of people who have a couple of drinks with their dinner at a restaurant. This increases the numbers for the police and gets them more funding. All the while the real drunks are still leaving bars hammered in their cars and trucks.
I have lost a family member to a drunken driver and still fell this way so don't lecture me. The focus should be on the people who drive while totally intoxicated (.1+) not a guy who blows a .05.
I have lost a family member to a drunken driver and still fell this way so don't lecture me. The focus should be on the people who drive while totally intoxicated (.1+) not a guy who blows a .05.
