Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Toowoomba Magistrates Court as he represents a client charged with Drug Driving. Watch Andrew explain what happened in the courtroom, along with the outcome which he achieved and how he achieved it.
All right. Today I’m at Toowoomba Magistrates Court. Client was charged with repeat drug driving. So there’s two types of drug driving. The more serious is what’s called drive under the influence of a drug, meaning you’re high on drugs. That wasn’t the case today. The lesser charge is what’s called drive whilst relevant drug present, meaning you’ve had it at some point. It’s worn off. You’re no longer high, but it’s still present in your system, and there’s traces detectable on a roadside test.
It was repeat drug driving. He’d been previously charged with exactly the same offence in 2015. Worst case scenario for this charge, if you’ve got a previous in the last five years, is an 18 month disqualification. Absolute best case scenario is three months, and because it’s a second in five years, there’s no eligibility for a drug driving work licence. So to be eligible to apply for a drug driving work licence, there’s a number of hurdles, but one of them is you can’t have lost your licence for any reason in the last five years. And as I’ve already stated, he had lost it in 2015, meaning he was ineligible to apply for a drug driving work licence.
So my job was one of getting the disqualification down as low as possible. As I said, worst case 18 months, absolute best case, 18 months above and beyond the disqualification, and despite the fact that it was a repeat offence. He had that previous 2015. He did have grave concerns with regards to the recording of another conviction. He’s a young man, a bright future, big dreams, and he was worried that having two drug driving convictions in his history would cause him immense problems in getting started in life, setting up businesses, travelling, et cetera. So I made submissions in that regard.
With regards to preparing, I got him to do the course that we get all of our clients to do, reformatory course exposing the client to what can happen on the road when you engage in repeat drug driving. I drafted an affidavit up for the magistrate to read based on what the client said he learned at the course. Got him to get references based on a template we give all of our clients. Met the client at court today. We grabbed the conference room, ran through my submissions, the procedure, what’s going to happen, et cetera.
And when we were in the courtroom, I took the magistrate through, who it is the magistrate was dealing with, my client as a person, background, upbringing, education, employment, history, family situation, the difficulties he’ll suffer while he’s off the road. The difficulties he’ll suffer if he gets another drug driving conviction on his record, what he learned at the course, et cetera, what happened on the day in question, how he got it wrong a second time. And I spoke at length about why my client should be treated a little bit differently to anyone else who may be before the court today.
Short version is I was successful on all fronts. I was able to persuade the magistrate to not go past the mandatory minimum three months disqualification. So my client was disqualified for three months, which as I said, is the mandatory minimum. Physically impossible to get any lower than that. I was also successful despite it being repeat offence, in persuading the magistrate not to record a conviction. So three months disqualification, no conviction recorded, modest fine, client’s very happy, as is his mom who is in attendance.
I’m Andrew Wiseman. Thanks for watching.