Criminal Charges
Yes, even without accident or causing bodily harm to others or property, your actions on the road may cause you to have a criminal record and become a convict, just like those who commit serious criminal offense. You are most likely to be charged with criminal offense if you drive impaired, fail or refuse breath sample to police, have a blood alcohol level of over the 80mg or involved in a dangerous driving. Others minor offenses that can also cause you a criminal charge and possibly send you to jail are: theft of money or a property under $5,000.00, assault and drug offenses (not involving importation, exportation and high amount in possession).
Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms forbids unreasonable search and seizure by any law enforcement agent. This means a police officer cannot stop and start searching your car or a person without a warrant. But your enjoyment of this right is negatively affected once charged with a criminal offense. The Identification of the Criminals Act, 1985, allows the law enforcement agent to finger print and photograph you once you are in custody, even though you are not convicted of any crime. The serious part is that while you may request the records to be destroyed if not found guilty of the offense, once convicted, you are out of luck. The criminal record will be kept in the Royal Canadian Police Criminal Record System’s database indefinitely.
If convicted, criminal charges will have a devastating detrimental effect on you, your freedoms as well as your employment opportunities. Aside having a criminal record for the rest of your life, the real meaning is that, your chances of having an open door window where you can dream of meaningful and fulfilling dreams may be thwarted. The records means you cannot be employed to some positions that require a clean record. Your criminal history will show anytime a prospective employer makes the request to see your criminal record, again, limiting your chances of being employed.
While you may still have your right to travel anywhere within Canada still intact, even though you have the criminal records, your ability to travel outside the country may be curtailed or negatively affected. The first that comes to mind is the United States. Having a criminal record, the United States’ border agency may stop you from entering the country upon your arrival at the port of entry. You must consider calling or speaking to a competent legal professional, a paralegal or a lawyer as soon as any of these charges are laid against you.
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Impaired Driving
Impaired driving is a serious charge that requires requisite skill and expertise to fight. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation defines “impaired driving” as a condition where a person driving a vehicle such as a car, truck, boat, snowmobile and off-road vehicle, the person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs or has consumed an alcohol with blood alcohol level over 80mg. This is contrary to the common notion that alcohol is the only offensive tool at the wheels. Yes, a drug can make you impaired, which means impairment is something beyond the smell of alcohol and once charged with impairment, it is a serious offense that comes with serious consequences that increase astronomically when repeated.
Minimum penalties for first time offender if convicted:
- Mandatory education or treatment program
- 1 year minimum requirement to drive a car equipped with an ignition interlock device
- No minimum jail sentence
- $1,000 fine
- Licence suspended for minimum 1 year*
Minimum penalties for second time offender if convicted:
- Mandatory education or treatment program
- 3 year minimum requirement to drive a car equipped with an ignition interlock device
- 30-day minimum jail sentence
- Fine amount at the discretion of the judge
- Licence suspended for minimum 3 years
Minimum penalties for third and Subsequent times if convicted:
- Mandatory education or treatment program
- Variable interlock periods (depending on sequence of prior convictions)
- 120-day minimum jail sentence
- Fine amount at the discretion of the judge
- Lifetime licence suspension (can be reduced to 10 years if certain conditions are met)
Why choose Oppong Wiafe Legal Firm?
It is a legal firm that prides itself on the requisite skill, in-depth knowledge and the technical know-how to deal with cases that comes through our doors, leaving clients extremely satisfied with the results we achieve. We put ourselves in our clients’ shoes, even though in most cases, they are tighter than we envisioned, as sometimes clients themselves lack knowledge of the full consequences of the charges leveled against them when they walk through our doors. But that is a sacrifice we are willing to make to ensure our clients do not feel alone in the fight to protect the consequences associated with serious driving infractions.
Even though we have the experience and the requisite skill to execute our mission with high success rate, we do not rely on our experience when fighting in the courts for our clients. While experience has been the most sought-after commodity, to us, experience is doing something over and over again and learning from that same act, event or action. We hold each case as unique and deal with it holistically. This means every case is a new field that requires serious research, commitment and dedication to deal with it as if it is our first case in the court room that we want to make a mark and make impression on the judge to look nowhere else than the direction we have carved with skill, dedication, commitment and novelty that conjures nothing but excellence.
