Impaired Driving Defence: Unjustified DUI Trial Postponements

François lives in Québec, but work few months, every year, in Europe for a company who specifically required him to have a blank criminal record. One night while he was in Québec, police officers intercepted him because they thought he wasn’t in a state to operate his vehicle. François was arrested and brought to the police station where he was ordered to blow in the breathalyser which revealed rates of 139 and 137 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. And François was charged with impaired driving.

François consulted Mr Benoît Gariépy, attorney at law, and asked him to do everything humanly possible to help him get out of this very bad situation. After an analysis of his DUI case, a trial date was fixed. At trial, the case was postponed because there were too many cases set on that date. A second trial date was further fixed. At that second date, the prosecution asked for another postponement because his main witness, the police officer who arrested François, was ill. Lawyer Gariépy objected to this second postponement claiming that it was the second postponement and that François suffered from these postponements (costs, delay, etc.) The judge wanted to know more about the reasons behind the absence of the police officer. The prosecution finally admitted that he wasn’t there because of a cold, nothing more. The judge decided that this second postponement wasn’t justified and François was acquitted of all the charges.