#146 Mackay Drug Driving

Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Mackay 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 Mackay Magistrates Court, client was charged with drug driving or repeat drug driving. There's two types of drug driving. The more serious is driving under the influence of a drug, meaning you're high on drugs. The less serious is what's known as drive whilst relevant drug present, meaning you've consumed it at some point, the effects have worn off, you're no longer under the influence, but there's traces of it still present. Without any previous, the worst case is a nine month loss of licence. And if you're on an open licence, minimum of one month, but if you're on a provisional licence the minimum is three months. But if you've been charged with repeat drug driving relevant drug present, which my client today had been, the worst case, if the previous is relevant drug present, as opposed to under the influence, is an 18 month disqualification, mandatory minimum is three months regardless whether you're on your opens or Ps.

So if you're on your Ps and it's your second relevant drug present in five years, the minimum remains at three months, but the worst case bumps from nine months to 18 months. Further to that, you can't get a work licence if you're on your Ps. So even if this was my client's first offence, it was not an option for them. But if a person's on their opens and they've got a previous in the last five years, or any previous loss of licence, work licence is not an option. It's just simply not. You won't be eligible if you've lost your licence for any reason in the last five years. So, worst case today for my client was 18 months, given it was his second in five, a minimum was three, partly because he's on his Ps and partly because it's his second in five, as well.

With regard to preparing. So just to clarify, so my job was one of getting the disqualification down as low as possible, as opposed to applying for a work licence. As far as preparing goes, I got him to get the same reformatory course we get all of our clients to do, it can be done online. So for regional clients, it's not an issue. Once upon a time, they had to travel to do it, but now it can be done online. Got him to get references based on a template we provide all of our clients. I got my instructions well before today from him, got the police brief. Once I had all that, I prepared my submissions. Flew up this morning, met the client at court. We grabbed a conference room, ran through my submissions, the procedure, what they could expect the magistrate to say, the prosecutor to say, me to say.

Look, as I said, the previous was about 18 months ago. So even though it was within the last five years, it was quite recent. But further to that, he had possession charges. So even though he only had one previous drug driving matter, it was his fourth drug type offence. So I said to the client going in, it would've been unreasonable to expect the minimum three months. I was still going to push hard for it. But if we walked out with four or five, that would've been a good outcome. And obviously, if he came here by himself or with inadequate representation, it's unlikely he'd get 18 months, but he may very well have got the nine to 12 month mark if it wasn't handled correctly.

Look, I made substantive submissions on my feet about the client as a person, who he is, his upbringing, difficulties he's had in his life, what he's learned from the courses and all the rest of it. The long and short of it is, I was successful in persuading the magistrate not to go past four months. So he got a four month disqualification, modest fine. He's obviously relieved, very happy. I'm Andrew Wiseman at Mackay Magistrates Court, thanks for watching.