Windsor Ontario DUI Lawyer

Brian Ducharme
251 Goyeau Street, Suite 405
Windsor, Ontario N9A 6V2

(519) 977-5500
(519) 977-1600 (fax)

 

We Can Help If you Have Been Charged With Impaired Driving

Windsor DUI Lawyer

When you are given the right to counsel, you need to be very mindful with your choice of legal representation. Driving under the influence is a criminal offence so hiring a criminal lawyer who specializes in DUI cases is crucial to your chances of having your charges dismissed.

Experienced DUI lawyers are experts in reviewing police reports, and they know exactly what to look for. In many cases, the police will make errors. If any of your rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were violated in the process of your DUI charge, you will need a lawyer with the knowledge to navigate through complicated laws and blood alcohol measurement procedures. DUI lawyers are also required to remain up to date on the constantly changing Federal and Provincial laws involving impaired driving.

There are also a number of different charges that fall under the umbrella of impaired driving, or driving under the influence. For example, when you are pulled over under suspicion of impaired driving, and are asked to provide a breath sample, the roadside machine is set to record a pass, warn or fail. A reading below 50 mgs (meaning 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood) is a pass. A warn is any reading between 50 and 80 mgs, and a fail is a reading over 80 mgs.

An impaired driving charge is given when there is evidence of impairment such as erratic driving, crossing the centre line, the smell of alcohol on the driver, slurred speech, etc. The “over 80” offence doesn’t require proof of impairment, only proof from the breathalyzer or the intoxilyzer machine, that confirms the driver had over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 mililitres of blood in his blood at the time he was driving the vehicle.

However, the officer will be permitted to arrest the driver on an over 80 charge immediately if they blew a fail on the roadside machine. If the driver exhibits signs of impairment, they may also be arrested for impaired driving in addition to the over 80 charge.

In some cases, if the officer did not first establish grounds that the driver had recently consumed alcohol, and enough alcohol to insist on a breath sample, it would result in a successful defence to the over 80 charge. The demand for a breath sample would be considered unlawful, and would therefore invalidate the breath test results. This is just one example of how an experienced DUI lawyer might assist you in winning your DUI case.

Your car doesn’t have to be moving to be charged with “Care or Control” of a vehicle while under the influence. You can be charged if you are sleeping behind the wheel and the car is parked and turned off. They keys do not even have to be in the ignition for you to be charged. The court only has to prove the ability is there for you to drive the car. This is yet another dubious area of DUI law that necessitates the expertise of a DUI lawyer.

The specialized knowledge of the inner workings and operation of the breathalyzer and intoxilyzer machines that a select few DUI lawyers have, is one more benefit to you when you hire such a lawyer. They have the advantage of determining whether or not there was a technical issue with the machine, or whether or not the technician administered the test improperly.

 

Our DUI Lawyers Can Help

Brian Ducharme represents people charged with DUI. If you have been charged with impaired driving, driving "over 80", dangerous driving, impaired driving causing death or any other alcohol-related driving offense, you should immediately contact a lawyer experienced in DUI defence. We invite you to contact us for a free, confidential consultation about your legal rights.

  For free answers to your questions about how we can help if you have been arrested for DUI, please call us at (519) 977-5500 or complete this online contact form. Brian Ducharme Windsor Ontario DUI Lawyer

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