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 been taken back to the police detachment. In both cases, there are pragmatic and strategic reasons to dispute a driving prohibition for DUI in BC. Aside from the loss of driving privileges, there are long-term consequences few people consider.
ICBC premiums will increase substantially if you have a driving prohibition for DUI on your driving record.
With both types of DUI driving prohibitions, you have only 7 calendar days to file for review. If you miss the review application period, you cannot file for review even it turns out the police evidence meant you were innocent factually or on a technicality. It’s important to act fast.
The problem with the very short window to file for review is that few people figure out the full cost of the consequences of the prohibition. This is, in fact, by design. The BC Government has from the start obscured the full consequences of IRP and ADP driving prohibitions for DUI from the start of each program. On top of that, the consequences can change between the time you get your DUI driving prohibition and the time you finish serving it. If you get a DUI driving prohibition in BC, you are in a position of risk because the BC Government pulls the strings.
An invasion of your privacy all over a 90-day DUI
The deception starts with the forms the police serve on you. If you get a driving prohibition for DUI it may appear that you’ll just pay a fine like a traffic ticket and that will be the end of it. But that’s just the start.
Regardless of the type of 90-day DUI, before you get back on the road you will be required to pay for remedial programs, which means a course that you must attend and complete that costs either $930 or $1600 depending on whether they think you have a drinking problem. It’s important to remember that the people who implemented these 90-day DUI programs assume that everyone who gets a driving prohibition for DUI has a drinking problem. The course takes a minimum of a day and it’s no fun. Participants have told us that there are traps to try and get them to admit to offences they’ve never committed. Pre-course interviews are conducted to gather information, and broad authorizations are compulsory that lets them dig into your medical history and private life. Did you have an STD in 2014? You may assume the instructor knows about your private medical history because they have demanded that participants provide authorization for them to get it.
ICBC’s Dumpster-Fire means you’ll be paying for years
People call us from time to time who never disputed their 90-day driving prohibition for DUI and they wish they could go back in time and dispute it. The saddest are the cases we knew we would have won. But now there is a new reason to dispute your 90-day BC DUI and that is ICBC insurance consequences.
Private life insurance companies and life insurance policies with your employer have for years skyrocketed with a driving prohibition for DUI, but to date, ICBC vehicle insurance has only relied on accident claims and driver risk premium. The driver risk premium paid over several years for a driving prohibition for DUI may be many thousands of dollars, but what is brand new is that your car insurance is about to jump big time.
Last year the Attorney General announced that your ICBC premiums will increase substantially if you have a driving prohibition for DUI on your driving record. The original start date was April 1, 2019, but that was changed because connecting it to April Fools made for bad optics. As a result, the date was moved up. In Autumn 2018 the Attorney General, who happens to also be the minister responsible for ICBC, announced that as of March 1, 2019, ICBC is jacking up rates for anyone with an IRP or ADP on their driving record. How much will your insurance cost? Just wait.
If you’re starting to feel the twist of the screw, get used to the feeling. An IRP or ADP have unfolding costs that nobody makes clear to you upfront.
It’s on your driving record
A driving prohibition for DUI in BC stay on your driving record for forever. They are a life sentence. But only five years of your driving record is disclosed to you if you ask for your abstract. But it’s there.
Now, with the ICBC consequences, a driving prohibition for DUI will be readily available to your employer if you drive a company vehicle. Even if your company doesn’t ask for your driving record, naming you as a driver of a company vehicle will bring up the increased insurance surcharge for the DUI on your record. What was intended as an administrative consequence, now has a long-lasting stigma and consequences nobody even considered when they wrote the law.
Interesting challenges before the court
Kyla Lee of our office has been the engine behind the challenges to the IRP scheme. Back in 2013, she succeeded in the first major victory since the law came into effect in June 2012 by demonstrating that RoadSafetyBC was breaking their own laws by introducing prohibited evidence. In the world or IRP legal challenges, Kyla has three issues before the court that we expect to have major implications for the different types of BC driving prohibition for DUI. In addition, the changes to drunk driving law that came into effect in December will trigger further challenges to the law.
For years the BC Government released documents that showed Acumen Law succeeded every month in more 90-day DUIs than any other law firm in BC, and in fact, Kyla Lee usually succeeded in more cases each month than all other law firms combined. In one outstanding month, Kyla received 96 winning decisions (a number of which were delayed because of court cases she was fighting) out of a total of 97 driving prohibition cases she defended.
There is a reason Kyla Lee is known as the IRP lawyer.
If you have a driving prohibition for DUI in BC, don’t wait until it’s too late to dispute the driving prohibition. We defend driving prohibitions from every corner of BC. We have the police breathalyzers and the tools to get the right results if you have been issued a 90-day driving prohibition for DUI. Give us a call.
Can i request a body fluid test if i am unable to provide a breath sample?