Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Cairns Magistrates Court as he represents a client charged with Drink Driving. Watch Andrew explain what happened in the courtroom, along with the outcome which he achieved and how he achieved it.
Today I’m at Cairns Magistrates Court. Client was charged with high range drink driving, reading a 0.183. It was a repeat offence. She had previous of 0.155 and 0.138. That said, those previous were outside of the last five years. Worst case scenario with this reading, 0.183 is a lifetime loss of licence. You can go there with the worst law in Queensland, you’re not going to get a lifetime loss of licence. But if you go there by yourself with the lawyers that don’t specialise, you can be off the road for several years, particularly with that type of previous.
Mandatory minimum of six months. Given the reading and the previous, six months was an unreasonable expectation. As I said, 0.183, even if there was no previous, whilst I have got it down to six months, I normally say eight to 10 for readings of that amount, because the high range starts 0.15 and obviously 0.183 is well past that. But also the previous does compound and notwithstanding the fact that it’s outside of the last five years.
So I said to my client I was going to push for around the eight to 10 month mark. I got her to complete a reformatory course, which could be done online, got her to get some references. I drafted some written submissions of case law in the event that the magistrate was going down the imprisonment option. Doesn’t happen often with this sort of much offending, but it does happen from time to time and I always like to make sure I’ve got all my bases covered in the event that imprisonment is on the table. I initially went in low. I was trying push for six to eight months, knowing full well that I was being a bit cheeky and low balling it, but sometimes you just make a judgement call on the day to go in a bit low.
I basically guided the magistrate through my client’s work history, upbringing, study history, current family situation. The fact that she lives out town, et cetera, what she learnt, what led to the day in question, et cetera. Look, the long and short of it is I was successful and persuaded the magistrate not to go past nine months. So as I said, reading a 0.183 with previous 0.155 and 0.138, I achieved a nine month disqualification. Modest fine. There’s no work licence because the cutoff is 0.15, so even with no history, if you’re high range and you’re 0.15 or over, you just cannot get a work licence.
So nine month disqualification, modest fine, client’s relieved, very happy. I’m Andrew Wiseman at Cairns Magistrates Court. Thanks for watching.