IRP Archives

Breathing Injustice: The Troubling Science Behind Breathalyzers and DUI Convictions in Canada

Dec 30 2024

Governments in Canada take a hard line on impaired driving. The offence of “at or over 80” sets the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at 0.08% (80 mg in 100 mL). The law and the police that enforce it rely heavily on breathalyzer results in prosecutions and roadside punishment of drivers. But beneath the veneer of technological certainty lies a troubling scientific reality: the accuracy of breathalyzers is […]

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IRP Blog: Navigating the Traps of BC’s Immediate Roadside Prohibition Scheme

Nov 20 2024

When the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) scheme was introduced in British Columbia in 2010, it fundamentally changed how DUI cases are handled in the province. Over the years, our blog has become the go-to resource for people trying to make sense of this complex and often confusing system. With more than 1,000 blog posts—many focused

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Pollen and roadside breathalyzers

May 10 2024

Every spring we see an increase in 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibitions issued based on an allegation of refusing to blow. There are a couple of reasons refusal DUIs go up in spring here in British Columbia. On the one hand more people are getting out to enjoy the weather, doing outdoor activities and the police

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The Appeal Remedy for a 90-Day Immediate Roadside Prohibition

Jan 9 2024

If you receive an Immediate Roadside Prohibition, your first thought may be “how can I fight this?” Then you get online, and you start reading about disputes and the appeal remedy for a 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP). Some of the information the government puts out suggests that you can take your shot at their

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Obligations at a DUI checkpoint in BC – presenting your license

Dec 4 2023

The Christmas Counterattack program is underway in British Columbia, starting with a massive blitz on the weekend with police DUI checkpoints on most major highways in the province. Lots of people are opposed to check-stop programs like these because they think it’s unfair to inconvenience thousands of drivers to catch the odd person who might

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Understanding an impaired driving prohibition

Apr 18 2022

In British Columbia there are various DUI impaired driving prohibitions and due to the crossover of federal criminal laws and provincial highway laws it can get a little confusing. Because there are several different types of DUI driving prohibitions, understanding an impaired driving prohibition is more difficult than you might imagine. Plenty of lawyers are

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Win or lose over the phone

Apr 15 2022

It is common for people to want to know whether they will win or lose over the phone when they first call us about their drinking-driving case. No lawyer can tell you whether you will win or lose your case over the phone in an initial phone call. The fact is, without reviewing the police

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Where do you find the defences to an Immediate Roadside Prohibition?

Apr 7 2022

There are a few steps we take right away when we defend an Immediate Roadside Prohibition (an IRP) to determine how we can best defend the allegation and succeed for our clients. Most important is to obtain the Report to Superintendent, which is a document we get from the government. The police must complete the

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BC trends in traffic enforcement

Apr 2 2022

The pandemic had obvious impacts on traffic in BC. Noteworthy as well are the BC trends in traffic enforcement in the last two years. Early in the pandemic, there was almost no traffic on the roads as everyone remained at home, hoping this would blow over as quickly as possible. Interestingly, police reported to us

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90-Day IRP? Kyla Wrote The Book On Them

Sep 28 2021

Kyla Lee is famous not just for DUI defence, but because she wrote the book on 90-day IRP defence. The Immediate Roadside Prohibition legal scheme has been around for more than 10 years. We started defending these cases from the day the law came out and Kyla has successfully defended IRPs for people from all

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The importance of disputing a driving prohibition for DUI

Feb 4 2019

There are a couple of types of driving prohibition for DUI that are issued by the police in British Columbia. The most common is the 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) issued on the basis of the roadside breath test. The second most common is the 90-day Administrative Driving Prohibition (ADP) issued once the driver has

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Immediate Roadside Prohibition Challenge Update

Dec 17 2018

Around this time last year, a BC Supreme Court judge in Victoria heard a week’s worth of arguments in the constitutional challenge to the third version of British Columbia’s controversial Immediate Roadside Prohibition scheme. Our office participated with another law office to bring about this challenge to the legislation. As you may recall, in April

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