A common misconception that we see when dealing with Driving While Prohibited cases, is that people believe that because they’ve been charged with DWP, they think they are ineligible to get their license back.
This is not true.
When you receive a driving prohibition, as soon as it is served, unless something about the prohibition indicates otherwise, it begins immediately. It continues until it is over or until it is revoked, reduced or cancelled by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles or ICBC.
They both have the power to extend the length of driving prohibitions in certain circumstances.
The Superintendent’s discretion to extend a prohibition is limited to circumstances where the prohibition is extended as a result of a conviction or an entry on your driving record.
Being charged with DWP is different. When you are charged with DWP, you are not being convicted even though you may exceptionally be guilty of the offence. In order for that to happen, you would have to plead guilty or be found guilty by a judge in court.
Only then can the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles or ICBC impose a further prohibition on you.
The fact that you are only charged with the offence, gives them no power to extend an existing driving prohibition, to impose a further prohibition, or to refuse to issue you your license when your current prohibition ends.
The legal reason for this is known as the presumption of innocence. Anybody charged with an offence is entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Because this applies to DWP charges, the Superintendent is not allowed to treat you as though you are guilty of that offence just because you were charged.
For them to refuse to respect or consider the presumption of innocence would constitute a legal error.
If you are charged with DWP, and you receive a further driving prohibition, do not assume the driving prohibition doesn’t apply because you’re entitled to the presumption of innocence. There are two reasons for this.
First, the further driving prohibition is likely not due to your DWP charge. You may have received a ticket at another time, which if you didn’t dispute it, could allow the Superintendent to issue a further prohibition.
Or there may be a driving prohibition in the works, that was not served on you yet.
Moreover, the law is clear, that if you’re served a driving prohibition you are required to comply with that prohibition, if and until it is revoked.
Even if it’s not valid, you still have to comply with it. This means that even if the Superintendent wrongly issued you a prohibition, the law requires that you respect that prohibition until you successfully fight it.
There is a rule, called the rule against collateral attacks that says that you cannot defend yourself against a breach of unlawful order by pointing out the unlawfulness of the order. An order is presumed to be lawful until it is successfully challenged itself.
As an aside, not all circumstances where people are charged attract the presumption of innocence. It is only when you are charged with an offence.
This is why when you receive an IRP or an ADP, your prohibition begins before you have the review hearing. The presumption of innocence does not apply to ADPs or IRPs because they are considered administrative actions, as opposed to offences.
If you have any questions about whether you can drive after being issued a DWP charge, the first step is to call ICBC to determine your license status and take any steps with ICBC to satisfy any outstanding issues with your license before starting to drive again.
If you are confused about anything related to this process, feel free to give our office a call.