Getting your impaired driving - dui charges dismissed/reduced.

Many drinking and driving charges are either dismissed or reduced.

Some people assume that their case is hopeless because they have failed a breath test or because someone has told them that impaired driving cases are "open and shut". Nothing is further from the truth. This is because DUI charges are some of the most complex, and technical charges in the Criminal Code.

The prosecution may not be able to prove the case against you. If that happens, then your impaired driving charges must be dismissed.

You're innocent until your proven guilty. Sometimes the case against you can't be proved. How can that happen? Here's an example.

Let's say the police tell you that you've failed a breath test. The case might seem straight forward, but it's not.

Breath tests aren't perfect. People and machines make mistakes. Human error, faulty breath testing equipment or your own unique characteristics can produce false breath readings. And even if the test is accurate, it tells you what your blood alcohol level was at the time you took the test. Your blood alcohol level may not have been under .08 when you were driving (the relevant time) but over .08 at the time you were tested.

Want some more examples?

Evidence, which is critical to the prosecution, may be excluded if it is improperly obtained. You may have been showing signs of impairment that were not caused by alcohol or drugs.

The bottom line is that there are many defences to impaired driving charges. Have your case reviewed by an impaired driving lawyer before you enter a guilty plea to see if any of them apply to your case. You might find that your charges can be dismissed if an impaired driving lawyer is there to help you.

Having your charges reduced (plea negotiations).

In some cases the most valuable thing that an impaired driving lawyer can do for you is negotiate a plea to a lesser offence. This is sometimes referred to as "plea-bargaining".

Plea-bargaining is something that happens every day at all levels of criminal court. It involves negotiations between your lawyer and the prosecutor, whereby the parties agree that the original charges will be dropped or a guilty plea will be entered to a lesser offence.

Prosecutors will entertain plea negotiations, but they need a good reason to do so. These reasons usually happen when your lawyer spots a weakness in the prosecution case, and then carefully negotiates with the prosecutor on your behalf. An impaired driving lawyer will make sure that every problem or weakness in the case against you is discovered, before deciding on plea negotiations.

Sometimes a defendant will try to negotiate with a prosecutor on his or her own. This is a bad idea. Often a defendant will accept an offer from the prosecutor, which is not the best offer available. And because prosecutors tend to make one offer of resolution only, you want to make sure that it is as good as you can get.

It's best to have an impaired driving lawyer, someone with an in-depth knowledge of its complex laws and procedures, conduct your plea negotiations from the outset. Your likelihood of successful plea negotiations goes up when someone who knows what they are doing is conducting them. By having an impaired driving lawyer conduct these negotiations, you'll know you are getting the best deal available.

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