Impaired Driving lawyers

Impaired Driving Lawyers - Impaired Driving Defense from $3995.00

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Impaired Driving, or Driving While Impaired is a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Impaired Driving means, not that the driver was intoxicated or drunk, only that;

     "The driver's ability to drive a motor vehicle has been impaired due to the consumption of an alcohol or drug"

A charge of Impaired Driving will dramatically affect your livelihood and your ability to drive.

Call OTT LEGAL LAWYERS, lawyers who specialize in Impaired Driving defense. Call discuss your impaired driving charge in confidence at 1-877-688-8946 or visit one of our ten Ontario offices.

More Impaired Driving Information:

Impaired Driving Defense- What you need to know >
Impaired Driving - Penalties >
Impaired Driving Lawyers - How our Lawyers Fight the Charge >
Impaired Driving Defense - Reasons why you should fight >
Impaired Driving Lawyers - Impaired Driving Cases Won by OTT Lawyers >

Refusing a Breathalyzer Test >
Refusing to take a Roadside Breathalyzer Test >
Drive with Over 80 Mgs of Alcohol >
Care and Control -While Impaired- Over 80 >

Call For A Free Consultation to discuss your Impaired Driving case with an expert call 1-877-668-8946 or visit one of our eight offices.

More information about Impaired Driving Defense

When you are arrested for impaired driving its a traumatic event. You may feel that your world has fallen apart. Once you're home you need to collect your thoughts and make an educated decision about what to do.

You may feel that a drinking and driving charge can change your life forever, that's not true, and our Impaired Driving Lawyers help many drivers each year. As Impaired Driving Lawyers, who specialize in defending impaired driving charges we win impaired driving cases.

Should you seek a lawyer or get legal advice? You may think that if the police have charged you with Impaired Driving then you're automatically guilty of the charge, but this is not true, the police do make mistakes, and the police do not win every case.

The first thing to do is to call us to briefly discuss case. When you discuss your impaired driving case with a lawyer with actual experience with impaired driving you will find out that for most impaired driving cases we can help you.

Impaired driving is a serious charge and has many issues and court challenges that bring unique challenges to each impaired driving case. The Impaired Driving Lawyers with OTT Legal are expert lawyers with years of court experience with legal experts like former breathalyzer technicians, and toxicologists standing by to assist in your defense. If there is anyway of winning your trial we are going to find it!

Why you should hire a Impaired Driving Lawyer from OTT Legal Lawyers?

OTT Legal Lawyers specialize in impaired driving and motor vehicle law. Not only are our lawyers experts in impaired driving defense, but OTT Legal Lawyers have on staff former Police Breathalyzer Technicians and Detectives from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto Police Service (no other law firm in Ontario has this resource). We also have experts in alcohol toxicology to assist in your defense. OTT Legal is one of the most qualified law firms in Ontario for fighting impaired driving charges.

The Impaired Driving Lawyers of OTT Legal Lawyers successfully represent hundreds of impaired driving and drinking and driving court cases per year. When you do something that often, day after day, year after year, you get good at it, and we are! OTT Legal Lawyers win impaired driving and drinking and driving cases.

Our impaired driving lawyers give you a free consultation to discuss your case and can explain the charges you are facing, how we can win your case, and what will happen as the case goes through the court system. Contact us to speak to discuss your impaired driving charge now.

When should you speak to an Impaired Driving Lawyer?

The day after your arrest will give you the time to review what has happened, how you were arrested and what to do next for your defense. Then give us a call or visit one of our ten Ontario offices.

When you speak to our impaired driving lawyers, the lawyer will listen to you as you tell them about your case, they can advise you about what has happened and the ramifications of the charge you're facing. We will then explain you in detail the steps we will take to successfully defend you in court.

OTT Legal Lawyers always takes the time to listen to your side, understands your concerns and takes the time to speak and consult with you about your case.

The day after your arrested we suggest that you write out what happened when you were stopped by the police. Our lawyers are interested in knowing what happened prior to your arrest, during the arrest and what happened at the police station.

Impaired Driving charges are won on legal arguments and issues like did the police officer do everything properly and legally are important, if a mistake was made it could win your case. As well if there are any witnesses that need to be contacted, e.g. restaurant staff to confirm how much you drank, or witnesses to say that you did not appear impaired, we want to talk to them.

Impaired Driving cases are time sensitive. The courts of Canada have a time limit to process your court case. The "clock" starts ticking the day that you appear with your lawyer and say your ready for trial. If you appear on the court date and say your still looking for legal help, you give the other side, the crown attorney more time to convict you of the charge. Read more about fighting impaired driving cases.

What is the cost to fight an Impaired Driving charge?

For anyone facing a criminal charge the legal costs are always a concern. You must consider the legal fee costs against what an impaired driving conviction may ultimately cost you, in terms of fines, loss of driver's license, jail time, lost income, insurance costs, and the stigma and restrictions that are the result of a criminal record.

OTT Legal Lawyers provides a winning court defense to help you. We offer monthly payment plans to ensure you get the best possible defense to your charge, and have some of the lowest rates for impaired driving defense in Ontario. Having a lawyer represent you starts from three thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine dollars, and we can start working on your case with just a down payment, and we do accept credit cards.

What is the penalty for an Impaired Driving Charge?

Drinking and driving or being arrested for impaired driving, has serious consequences – you could lose your job, be denied crossing in to the USA and be labeled as a high-risk driver with exorbitant or unaffordable insurance rates, the insurance company may cancel your insurance policy. Impaired driving is considered a Criminal Offense and will mean that if convicted you will receive a criminal record for life.

If these criminal penalties for impaired driving do not seem enough, for a serious impaired driving charge or if you have previous convictions you could be sentenced to a period of jail. The penalties for Impaired Driving are;

  1. Criminal record for life, including recording of your fingerprints and photograph with the RCMP.
  2. Driver's license suspension of one full year, you cannot drive or operate anything that has an engine attached to it, including equipment. e.g. tractors,
  3. Fines in the range of one thousand dollars to two thousand dollars or more.
  4. Installation of an ignition interlock system in any motor vehicle for one year at your expense.
  5. Must take a re licensing program "Back on Track" with the Ministry of Transportation before your driver's license will be returned to you, at your expense.
  6. Insurance rates will go into "high risk insurance" of premiums starting at ten thousand dollars per year for up to five years.
  7. With a criminal record for Impaired Driving you maybe refused access if you try to cross the border into the USA specially if you are a commercial motor vehicle operator.

After you Retain an OTT Legal Lawyer

After deciding that you want our lawyers to defend you in court, we'll get right to work obtaining the details and events surrounding your arrest. You can help us by completing the Impaired Driving Information sheet and bringing it with you when you come in to discuss your case.

We then go over your statement and the paperwork that the police provided you at the time of arrest. We start right away to building a defense for you, looking for grounds to have your charges dismissed for legal or technical reasons. We also look to see if the police violated any of your rights guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Everything must be reviewed and examined in preparing your case for trial.

Having an experienced criminal lawyer is mandatory with impaired driving cases. Criminal law is constantly evolving and charging. New rulings and legal arguments come out each year that can affect your trial. We do not use junior, or inexperienced lawyers for impaired driving trials. Each lawyer has years of criminal law and trial experience.

As well having an expert criminal lawyer, your lawyer will consult with the former police officers, detectives and the police breathalyzer technicians of OTT Legal giving your lawyer with immediate access to police standards and information to provide you with a thorough review of the police investigation. (no other law firm in Ontario has this access)

Next we will prepare you for the first court date. The court date that the officer gave you on the release forms is not the trial date. This first court date is called a "set date" and is a court date to meet with the crown attorney, enter a plea of not guilty and for the crown attorney to provide us with the police report.

Once we have the police report (the disclosure) and have entered a Not Guilty plea at the "Set Date" we will take the time to go over the report in detail with you, examine the police investigation, and continue our defense preparations.

Fighting an impaired driving charge is a complicated process and may involve a combination of laws, both federal and provincial, including those from the Criminal Code, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.

You cannot properly represent yourself against an impaired driving charge in criminal court because of how complicated and technical these charges are. Our knowledge in impaired driving cases, expertise and experience ensures that you will be strongly and effectively represented both in and out of court with qualified experience legal defense.

What is Impaired Driving?

The Criminal Code of Canada defines the term "impaired driving" as "driving while your ability is affected by alcohol or drugs." Impaired driving is a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada and, if convicted, you lose your licence, be fined, or you could even spend time in jail. Impaired driving does not mean drunk driving. Impaired Driving means that your ability to drive a motor vehicle has been affected by the use of alcohol to the point where your ability to drive is impaired.

Your vehicle does not even have to be moving to be charged with impaired driving. If you are impaired behind the wheel of your car, even if you have not started to drive, you can be charged with having the "care and or control of a motor vehicle while impaired".

The laws regarding drinking and driving and impaired driving are becoming increasingly more strict in the Province of Ontario. The Ministry of Transportation has imposed strict conditions for drivers even if they are not legally over the limit or impaired.

Impaired Driving Defenses

When you hire an impaired driving lawyer, our lawyers look at all possible defenses to your impaired driving charge. We win impaired driving case from highly technical defenses, to violations of your civil rights to errors in the police investigation.

Police investigations for Impaired Driving Charges

Did the police have proper grounds to stop and investigate the driver?

A police officer cannot just go and do random stops of vehicles hoping to find an impaired driver. The police officer should have had a bona fide reason for stopping the driver, and then conducting an impaired driving investigation.

The police must make a proper demand for breath samples

Did the police officer make a proper demand from the driver to provide breath samples? The police must properly make a demand for breath samples from the driver. The police officer should have said to the driver;

I demand that you provide a sample of your breath into an approved breathalyzer and that you accompany for the purpose of enabling a sample of your breath to be taken. Do you understand.

Did the police officer make a proper arrest?

Canadian law says that if a police officer places you under arrest for any charge they have to;

  1. Tell you that you are under arrest
  2. Tell you what you are under arrest for
  3. Advise you that you have the right to speak to legal counsel
  4. Take physical control of the arrested person

The breath test must be taken as soon as possible.

Meaning that the officer after arresting you must take you directly to the closest available breathalyzer facility to conduct the test. If for example the officer arrested you, then while driving to the police station stopped to do something on the way e.g. pick up their lunch, this would be unacceptable to the Judge and would become a serious issue at the trial.

The breathalyzer test must be taken within 2 hours of the time of the incident.

There is a presumption in Canadian law that if a breathalyzer test is taken within 2 hours of the incident, that the breathalyzer reading taken is the measurement of what the persons blood alcohol was at the time of the offence. If the tests were not taken within the 2 hour time limit the presumption is lost, and the police must prove the blood alcohol level by other means.

Was the accused given privacy to speak with legal counsel?

The driver must be given privacy to speak with their legal counsel when they have been arrested. If the accused has not been given privacy, the Judge may rule that their rights have been violated. Violations of civil rights may mean that charges could be dropped.

Did the police office complete all the necessary paperwork properly?

The police officer must complete all of the documents and investigation properly. Some documents, like the Information (the document containing the formal charge), the Notice of Intention to Produce Documents, and the Certificate of Analysis of a Breathalyzer Technician must be properly completed and filed out. If the document are not properly prepared, they may not be admitted as evidence in court. If a mandatory document is excluded from evidence it may mean that your charge gets dismissed.

Did the police officer properly serve the documents on the accused?

Some court documents must be served on the accused. The police officer has rules about serving documents for the court to accept the documents into evidence. If a document has not been served properly, it maybe excluded from evidence allowing your impaired driving lawyer to win your case.

Can the police officer prove the who, what, when, where and how of the case?

In any impaired driving trial the police officer must prove, who committed the offence, what did they do, when did they do it, where did they do it, and how did they do it.

The police have to prove the identity of the driver, what did the driver do, when did the driver do it, where did the driver do it, and how did they do it. For example the police officer has to prove who did the offence, this is called the "Identity Evidence". As many times court cases take months to come to court, the officer must remember what the driver looked like and be able to point them out in court. OTT Legal Lawyers have won cases where the police officer was unable to prove the identity of the driver when the case came to court.

Call OTT LEGAL LAWYERS, lawyers who specialize in Impaired Driving defense. Call discuss your impaired driving charge in confidence at 1-877-688-8946 or visit one of our ten Ontario offices.

 


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