If you have a child in your car when you are arrested for DUI, this can be considered an aggravating feature. Not only can it make your case more complex but it can also make it less likely to resolve. The most important thing to remember if you have a child in your car when arrested for DUI is to get legal advice right away.
When you are arrested for impaired driving with a child in your car, there are certain additional steps that you are going to have to take.
In circumstances where police observe a child in the vehicle of a potentially impaired driver, they are under obligation to report the incident to the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) in British Columbia.
An investigation is then triggered into whether or not the child is in a safe home, and if there is any risk to the child. Of course, we understand that many people who are arrested for a DUI with a child in their car are either innocent or falsely arrested. Or they are people who do not have a habit of drinking to the point of intoxication, then driving and are not generally putting their children at risk.
Even the best parents can make mistakes, and even the best parents can be falsely accused. Most people care about their children and are doing everything they can to protect them. But mistakes can be made. In our experience, most of the people who are arrested for a DUI with a child in their car are innocent or do not have a history of impaired driving or of harming their children or putting them at risk.
The MCFD also understands this, although, they come at it from a different perspective. The steps that are going to follow are complex.
Typically, a representative of the MCFD will contact you to conduct an interview. This is usually followed by a home visit. You are required to participate in this process. Because the process is mandatory, it is necessary to keep the matter from escalating into the removal of the child from the home. If you refuse to participate, it is more likely that action will be taken against you. This can include ultimately taking your child from your home. For this reason, it is best to cooperate with the investigation.
All the Ministry is concerned about is that your child is safe, healthy, well-fed, and not subject to any abuse or in a home with excessive alcohol consumption and intoxication.
Prior to your interview with the Ministry, you should consult with a lawyer to ensure that you know the steps you need to take to protect yourself when providing information to the Ministry. This can mean consulting with both a family lawyer and a criminal lawyer.
You may think only a family lawyer is necessary in an investigation like this, but that is not the case. This is because the information that you are giving the Ministry is required under provincial legislation. In criminal law, this is known as “compelled participation.” There are rules around how statements made in such a process can be used against you and in what context. Therefore, the answers you are providing to questions posed by the Ministry could also potentially jeopardize you in the criminal case.
If the police were able to obtain or did obtain, the information from the investigation, that information could potentially be used against you in court.
There are steps that you can take to protect yourself when dealing with the Ministry, effectively to make that information something that cannot be used as evidence against you. But the process to follow in order to make this happen is very technical and requires legal advice from a criminal lawyer.
There are certain things you must say at a particular stage. Ultimately, if you are driving with a child in your car and are accused of impaired driving or given a DUI, you can expect that the process is not going to end that night. It is going to be more complicated than the average DUI.
This makes it all the more important to obtain legal advice to ensure that you protect both yourself and your family.