Immediate Roadside Prohibitions - Update

The Immediate Roadside Prohibition is part of the decriminalization of impaired driving in BCThe Immediate Roadside Prohibition has been a feature of British Columbia traffic law for several years. Immediate Roadside Prohibitions are issued by police officers who claim that a driver blew into a screening device which returned a fail reading, or that the driver refused to blow into a screening device. If you've been issued an Immediate Roadside Prohibition, there is bad news and good news.

The Bad News

The bad news is that the Immediate Roadside Prohibition law was drafted to make it difficult (but not quite impossible - see below) for drivers to dispute.

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How Do We Reform The Justice System, Without Giving Up Independence And Discretion?

The Legislature Buildings In Victoria, BCThe BC Government has started to respond to the widespread concern about the growing gridlock in the Province's justice system. Earlier this week, it released a green paper titled "Modernizing British Columbia's Justice System". Anyone concerned about the future of BC's courts needs to review the green paper, because it will frame the coming debate.

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Right Answer, For The Wrong Reasons

British Columbia Provincial Court Faces Pressure To Resolve Backlog In Court ListsAs more cases are stayed because of court backlogs, the Victoria Times Colonist recently published an editorial that was highly critical of the BC justice system, and called for fundamental change. While I agree that change is necessary, the argument advanced by the editors betrays a superficial understanding of the complexity of the problems faced by our justice system, which will lead inevitably to the wrong sorts of changes.

The Times Colonist said:

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Legal Aid Fight Continues

BC Lawyers Fight For Legal Aid In the first week of January, lawyers across BC withdrew Duty Counsel services to pressure the BC government to restore funding for legal aid to reasonable levels. On February 1, the second phase of the campaign will start, and lawyers will boycott Duty Counsel for two weeks.

Background

Legal Aid in BC has a sorry history. Funding was slashed by 40% in 2002, and has been consistently reduced since then. The level of funding today is far below what is needed to pay for a working legal aid system.

I think that this is wrong, for three reasons:

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Evaluating Officers and the Admissibility of Expert Evidence

Evaluating Officers Are Used To Gather Evidence In Impaired Driving InvestigationsA BC criminal lawyer deals with changes in criminal law often. One of the recent changes to impaired driving law is the introduction of measures intended to aid police in detecting and prosecuting drivers who are impaired by drugs other than alcohol. Those measures are contained within s. 254(3.1) of the Criminal Code.

A police officer who reasonably suspects that a person has a drug in their body and within the preceding three hours has operated a motor vehicle may now demand that the person perform certain standardized field sobriety tests to assist in determining whether grounds exist for an evaluation by a Drug Recognition Expert. Those tests are prescribed in s. 3 of Regulation 208-196 which provides as follows:

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Criminal Law Issues To Watch In 2012: Tides Of Change

The New Year Will Bring Changes In BC Criminal Law

The New Year will sweep in changes to criminal law in British Columbia, and to the way that BC criminal lawyers practice their profession. The year will bring new laws, challenges for the allocation of resources in the justice system, and ongoing debate about the ways to respond to high profile trials like those for people charged in the Vancouver Riot or for police officers accused of breaking the law. As always, feel free to add your comments in the section below the post. 

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Judge Reserves Ruling On Fate Of BC's Immediate Roadside Prohibition

Lawyers Argue Over For Remedy For Unconstitutional LawMr. Justice Jon Sigurdson reserved judgment on the nature of the remedy that will flow from his ruling last month that BC's 90 Day Immediate Roadside Prohibition was unconstitutional. He heard hours of argument from lawyers acting for the BC Government, who urged him to delay ordering any sort of remedy to give the government time to fix the law, and lawyers for affected drivers,  who asserted that the unconstitutional provisions should be repealed immediately, the driving records of affected drivers cleared, their fines and penalties repaid to them and requirements for programs like the Responsible Driver Program and the ignition interlock rescinded.

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Criminal Law Book Review: "Investigating Impaired Drivers"

Greg Koturbash, Salmon Arm Crown Counsel, Has Published "Law Professionals Guide To Investigating Impaired Drivers"Greg Koturbash, a prosecutor in the Salmon Arm BC Crown Counsel Office, has published a book titled the "Law Professionals Guide to Investigating Impaired Drivers."

The book is a clearly-written review of all aspects of an impaired driving investigation, from where to conduct patrols and the initial stop to giving evidence in court. The author has structured the book as a series of concise responses to particular questions that arise in impaired driving investigations. The questions are very specific, for example, "What if the driver interrupts me while I am reading section 10(b)?" or, "When do I have to wait 15 minutes before administering the ASD device?" The Table of Contents makes it easy to find the answer to any specific question. At over 360 pages, the author has covered every issue I could imagine.

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BC RCMP Contract Up For Renewal

RCMP Contract Up For RenewalUnlike other large provinces like Quebec and Ontario, British Columbia does not have its own provincial police force. Instead, the RCMP serves as British Columbia's provincial police force under the terms of a contract signed with the provincial government. Most other provinces have a simiilar arrangement with the federal police force.

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