{"id":10683,"date":"2017-03-17T06:24:33","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T06:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:81\/wordpress\/?p=10683"},"modified":"2017-03-17T06:24:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T06:24:33","slug":"failed-breath-test-wont-guarantee-an-impaired-driving-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/failed-breath-test-wont-guarantee-an-impaired-driving-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Failed breath test won’t guarantee an impaired driving conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failing a roadside breath test is a frightening prospect. A conviction for\u00a0impaired driving<\/a>\u00a0may mean a fine, a lost licence, and perhaps other penalties. Those are serious punishments for the average citizen. However, there have been many cases wherein failed tests did not lead to convictions. A recent example happened in Ontario when a woman’s case was dismissed for a Charter violation.<\/p>\n

After failing a roadside test, the woman was taken to a police station for further processing. An officer asked her to stand on a scale so her weight could be ascertained. It was this part of the process that was singled out in court.<\/p>\n

A Superior Court Justice upheld a lower court ruling that asking for her weight was a violation of her privacy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. With the precedent set, asking for a person’s weight is now in the same category as a request for a DNA sample or bodily fluids, meaning as an intrusive request, it can be refused. This is a new addition to the rights of the accused, which include the right to silence, and the right to avoid self-incrimination.<\/p>\n

An impaired driving charge does not necessarily\u00a0mean an impaired driving conviction will soon follow. Anyone accused of a crime in Ontario has rights and freedoms that may not be violated during the process of investigation and arrest. An experienced defence lawyer will scrutinize a person’s case for such violations, or other irregularities, which may then be used to defend the accused in court.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/b>rcinet.ca, “Drunk driving charges: The weight of evidence, and language difficulties<\/a>“, Marc Montgomery, March 9, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Failing a roadside breath test is a frightening prospect. A conviction for\u00a0impaired driving\u00a0may mean a fine, a lost licence, and perhaps other penalties. Those are serious punishments for the average citizen. However, there have been many cases wherein failed tests did not lead to convictions. A recent example happened in Ontario when a woman’s case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-10683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drunk-driving","tag-drunk-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}