This is an update to two of our previous blog posts; SNAFU at the OSMV affecting some people with old IRPs and SNAFU update for old IRPs. You’ll need to start with those two posts to understand this IRP 1 SNAFU update. Also, this only applies to IRPs issued between September 20, 2010 and November 30, 2011.
The update:
On Friday May 2, 2014, we received word that leave for appeal has been sought to the Supreme Court of Canada on the Sivia decision. Both sides have appealed the lower court rulings, so we expect that the Supreme Court of Canada will permit the appeal to proceed. Which means a hearing probably in 2015 and a decision from the Court at some point afterward.
Bearing this in mind, the BC Government has conceded that stays of driving prohibitions from the first IRP scheme should be in effect. And, moreover, arguably it was wrong for the OSMV to have concluded that people who had court orders should have started serving the balance of their prohibitions as of April 3, 2014. This is because the remedies argument is still before the Court of Appeal and has been put on hold until there is a resolution from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Can you start driving again? It’s not so simple.
Rather than battle in court about the issues that we discussed in the previous blog posts, the Government conceded the point but did not concede that they could unilaterally re-instate licenses. And now the issue will never end up before a judge. So whether they can or can’t, i.e. whether it was right or wrong to have re-prohibited everyone 30 days after the most recent Sivia decision, will never be decided.
They might be right or we might be right. If a court ever takes a position on it, it will be for damages in a law suit. The point is that you should keep track of your expenses, and the costs that this has inflicted because 1-5 years down the road you may be entitled to collect.
How to get back on the road:
The lawyers for the Government have offered to assist with the only remedy they’re willing to consider, which is to assist us to file new rush consent orders. Bearing in mind that there is no dispute about the content of the order or the legal right, they should consent to the orders ASAP.
If you have a few weeks remaining on your prohibition, calls us during office hours and we’ll do this for you.
If you have a week or so to go, we suggest that you live it out and save the money.
If you gave us the instructions to get an extension of the stay and you were wondering when the order would come, we can tell you that the holdup was the Government. Now that they have a position, we expect the orders couriered to our office tomorrow and filed ASAP. Then we wait for them to come back signed from the court Registry. We expect that the quickest possible turnaround would be this coming Thursday. Once we file the document, however, we have no control over having a judge sign it. Meaning, it is then out of our hands at that point and several days can pass before we get back the endorsed order.
What’s this going to cost me?
The filing fee that must be paid to Court is $80. We pay for couriers and disbursements. It’s all pretty cheap. Now that the official Government position is to consent to the stay of driving prohibition, we can do it for 1-hour at an hourly rate, plus the filing fee.