The Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) – 604-318-3838

If you have received an IRP in British Columbia then normally there was a police investigation regarding your use and operation of a vehicle when there was some alcohol in your body.  The police investigation usually commenced as an criminal impaired driving investigation but the police officer decided instead to issue you an “administrative penalty” rather than continue with his criminal impaired investigation. The police and Crown Counsel see this approach as “giving you a break”. At Butler & Company our driving prohibition lawyer, Jamie Butler believes the issuance of the IRP is not a “break” at all unless you want to call it ‘breaking your piggy bank”. For more clarity as to why Jamie Butler says that: CLICK HERE.

The fundamental basis for any IRP driving prohibition issued by the police centers around the breath testing requests and results given/taken at the roadside with the use of an approved screening device (ASD) such as the commonly used Alcosensor IV DWF.  The most common circumstances involve a police officer stopping you and your vehicle in a police stop (or counterattack roadblock) and suspecting that you had alcohol in your system and thereafter making a demand upon you to provide a breath sample into an ASD.  If you thereafter refuse this legal demand at the roadside (or the officer believes you have done so) then the police officer (in British Columbia only) currently has the discretion to either issue you and IRP driving prohibition or else proceed with criminal charges.   If you provide a breath sample and the analysis of your breath conducted on the ASD by the police officer shows you to be below 80 but above 50 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood (or a WARN) then you will be issued an IRP driving prohibition resulting in a prohibition of 3, 7 or 30 days (there are further repercussions as well).  If you provide a breath sample and the analysis of your breath conducted on the ASD by the police officer shows you to be above 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood (or a FAIL) then (provided the officer does not further proceed with a criminal investigation) you will be issued an IRP driving prohibition resulting in a prohibition of 90 days (there are further repercussions as well).

Suffice to say the issuance of IRP driving prohibition by the police assumes that the police officer has operated the ASD correctly, that the ASD utilized was properly functioning at the time and that the results of the ASD that were achieved are actually an accurate and reliable reflection of the amount of alcohol in your body.  UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU police officers often screw up using the ASD devices, some the police departments have been known to have used faulty devices (ie. ones which always registered a fail) and the ASD devices utilized by the police in B.C. often mis-reading the actual amount of alcohol in your body (by for instance failing to account for “mouth alcohol” which may be present thus giving “FALSE FAIL” test results).

CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING VIDEO SHOWING HOW MOUTH ALCOHOL CAN AFFECT AN ASD TO GIVE A FALSE HIGH READING.

Any driving prohibition served upon you can put your job, your future and family at risk so no matter what driving prohibition that you have been served you should IMMEDIATELY seek advice from a qualified driving prohibition lawyer to obtain the details regarding same.  Our Vancouver IRP lawyer, Jamie Butler, is a former prosecutor who can explain the repercussions, effects, appeal procedures and possible defences to you.

Call us at 604-318-3838 (24 hours and 7 days a week) and we can arrange a FREE LEGAL CONSULTATION regarding the possibility of appealing your driving prohibition.  Alternatively we also offer a FREE LEGAL EVALUATION of your driving prohibition matter by your sending us a brief written description of your case by CLICKING HERE.