Legal Defence for Your Calgary Impaired Driving Charge
Impaired driving is a dangerous thing, for your safety and the safety of everyone else on Calgary's roads and sidewalks. Being intoxicated by alcohol or other drugs has neurological effects that dull your senses and slow your reaction times, making you less aware of potential hazards and dangers on the road and less likely to respond in time appropriately, delays in response and over-corrections can lead to collisions resulting in significant property damage, serious injuries, and even fatalities.
Alcohol and many other illegal or controlled substances also alter your cognitive functioning and judgment, making you far more likely to take unnecessary risks and to feel as though you are safely in control when in fact the exact opposite is true. This decreased ability to exercise proper judgment is one reason many high-speed collisions in the Calgary area are found to be caused at least in part by impaired driving.
With the combined lack of judgment and inability to react quickly when hazards appear, it should be clear why drunk driving, or a DUI involving any other substance, is such a dangerous proposition.
While the physical risks created by driving while intoxicated should be your primary concern, a DUI also comes with serious legal dangers. In Calgary and throughout Alberta, anyone driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 or higher can be charged with a criminal offence, facing serious and immediate legal consequences from the moment an arrest is made and/or charges are laid. Even in cases where the DUI charge is completely erroneous, you'll be facing an uphill legal battle against the Calgary Police and Crown prosecutors.
You are entitled to raise a defence against a DUI charge, just as you are against any other criminal charge. And, as when you are charged with any other serious crime, you are entitled, and encouraged, to hire an experienced defence lawyer to fight on your behalf.
How a Calgary DUI Lawyer Can Help
No lawyer in Calgary can wave a magic wand and make your impaired driving charge disappear, but a dedicated DUI defence lawyer can bring advanced legal knowledge and years of experience to the table. The right impaired driving lawyer will help you understand your case, deal with Calgary Police and court officials on your behalf, and make your DUI case proceed as smoothly and stress-free as possible while also securing the best possible outcome.
There are a variety of ways to proceed with a defence in any Calgary DUI case; your lawyer will help you decide the best way to proceed given the specific circumstances of the charges laid against you. Without a lawyer, your chances of a successful outcome are far slimmer and the process is all but guaranteed to be more time-consuming, frightening, and frustrating. There's a reason the law explicitly entitles you to a defence lawyer any time you've been charged with a crime, so take advantage of the resources you have available when you've been charged with a Calgary DUI.
For a free initial consultation discussing your impaired driving charge, please contact my office today.