We’ve received hundreds of calls already this week from people who got a 90-day IRP several months ago or even last year. We understand that many people are still angry about the process and what they’ve been forced to pay out, particularly since the scheme has been found to be unlawful.
From our perspective, the Government created a law that stood in violation of the Charter of Rights and in particular, grossly restricted the defences a person could advance. Moreover, they made it impossible to obtain the evidence required to prove innocence because the Government either refused to assist, or obstructed all attempts to obtain the evidence. Bearing in mind that you could not advance a defence in these circumstances, it’s understandable that many people simply walked out of ICBC without paying for a review, feeling that they’d been beaten with a stick.
In our view, everyone who received a 90-day IRP should be entitled to an immediate remedy. But the Government is strange. As well, governments are are well equipped to take your money and not so interested in giving it back when they’ve screwed up.
We don’t see anything that stands in the way of recovering the fines, towing and storage, license reinstatement fee, RDP fee and interlock costs for each person who disputed their matter in a review before the OSMV (either oral or written hearing). The simple fact is that they can advance the same argument, i.e. that the law was unlawful, and obtain a remedy. Moreover, because we’re speaking of a Charter violation, there may be further remedies granted by the Court.
So at this point we’re advising everyone to file a Petition for a review of the OSMV adjudicator’s decision. We are preparing Petitions this week to appeal OSMV review decisions.
We’re dealing with hundreds of these right now. It’s not overwhelming, but we need to use our time wisely so that we can help as many people as possible. If you want us to do it, please call us during business hours. If we can’t speak to you at that moment, give us a few minutes to call you back.