Boorman Lawyers appeared at the Southport Magistrates Court on Friday 14 October 2016 for a client who had been charged with a Low Range Drink Driving Offence. Our expert Southport Court DUI Lawyers were able to achieve the best possible outcome for our client.
DUI Video #TimeStamps
00:13 – Welcome to #BoormanLawyers Southport Court Video Update
00:30 – NSW Licence holder caught DUI on Gold Coast
00:52 – RBT and recorded BAC of 0.087
01:16 – Relies heavily on licence to work
01:31 – Precluded from applying for Work Licence since she held a NSW Licence
02:13 – Obtained evidence from her employer
03:00 – Boorman Lawyers obtained evidence of Public Transit records
03:35 – Assisted in preparing a strong letter of Apology
03:58 – Client completed the Traffic Offenders Program in Sydney
04:30 – Case was packaged together & persuasive verbal submissions were presented
05:30 – Subjective & Personal Issues were discussed before the Court
06:30 – Magistrates agreed that it was unfortunate client couldn’t apply for Work Licence
06:45 – Magistrate agreed to reduce the disqualification period she reduced it to the 1 month minimum disqualification
07:20 – Magistrate decided not to record a criminal conviction
07:50 – Benefits of obtaining a specialist DUI Lawyer
08:20 – Contact Boorman Lawyers 1300 941 900
8:40 – Visit our website BoormanLawyers.com.au
Low Range Drink Driving Offence QLD
Our very concerned client initially contacted us to discuss what kind of penalties she was facing since he had been charged with Low Range Drink Driving Offence in Queensland otherwise known as “Driving over the General Limit but Under the Middle Range”.
Generally a person (on a standard Open Drivers Licence) will be charged with such an offence when there Blood Alcohol Reading is recorded as 0.050 but less than 0.100.
In this situation our client recorded a Blood Alcohol Reading of 0.087, so it’s easy to see that her reading was at the higher end of the Low Range Drink Driving category. So for us to be able to persuade the Court to give the maximum amount of leniency we had our work cut out for us.
NSW Licence BUT Charged in QLD Jurisdiction
The interesting issue about this case was that our client was a NSW resident and licence holder however was charged and arrested for Low Range Drink driving whilst visiting friends on the Gold Coast.
Unfortunately for our client this meant that because they were a NSW licence holder this automatically precluded our client from being able to make a Section 87 Restricted Work Licence Application.
Given our clients circumstances with their employment and means of earning a living our client would have been a prime candidate to obtain a work licence if they had of been the holder of a QLD licence. However, that wasn’t the case so ultimately our client was resigned to the fact that the Court had no other choice but to disqualify her licence for a period of time.
Penalties for Low Range Drink Driving in QLD
Since it was our clients 1st Drink Driving Offence and 1st Major Traffic Offence they were liable to received a period of disqualification between 1 month to 9 months off the road without a licence. Our client also faced a fine of a maximum penalty of $1649.00.
DUI Court Case Strategy
Since our client knew they were going to lose their licence the aim of the game from both our end and our clients needs were to try to obtain as low a period of disqualification as possible.
Whilst our client was precluded from applying for a Drink Driving Work Licence we still wanted to put across to the Magistrate that our client had a need to get back on the road quicker than the average person since our clients job and ability to earn an income depended on their drivers licence.
It was pointed out to the Magistrate that our client would have been a prime candidate for a QLD DUI Work Licence but was precluded due to the fact they were the holder a NSW drivers licence, that being the case we submitted that our client should receive the absolute minimum disqualification period of 1 month.
We supported this submission by tendering well written references from our clients employer confirming our clients need to drive in order to carry out their work duties.
We were able to tender some other very strong and favourable character references in favour of our client.
Furthermore, we tendered public transport schedules to highlight the fact that it was an incompatible mode of transport since it would not allow our client to get to their work place on time or assist in performing their work duties.
Traffic Offenders Program QLD
To show the Court that our client was serious about learning from the offending experience, our client successfully completed the approved Traffic Offenders Program.
This showed the Court our clients willingness to re-educate themselves on driver safety. The fact our client did this program was well received by the Magistrate of the Court.
Low Range DUI Court Results
The Magistrate agreed that it was unfortunate that our client was precluded from applying for a restricted work licence and took the rare opportunity to provide our client with the most lenient disqualification available at law.
Our client was disqualified from driving for the minimum period of 1 month.
What’s more is that the Magistrate did not record a criminal conviction against our client which was an added bonus in our clients favour.
Our client did received a fine of $600.
Overall our client was extremely happy not to received a criminal conviction and to only receive a disqualification period of 1 month.
Speak to our DUI Lawyers Ph: 1300 941 900
Our DUI Lawyers can be contacted at:
Boorman Lawyers NSW & QLD Solicitors