#157 Mossman Drink Driving

Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Mossman 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.

All right. Today I'm at Mossman Magistrates Court, which is just up the road from Port Douglas, about an hour north of Cairns. Clubs charge with high-range drink-driving, reading at 0.153, high range kicks in at 0.1. Worst case is a lifetime disqualification meaning to a minimum of six months. So my job today was to try and get it as close as I possibly could to the minimum six months.

My particular client, they're an Australian citizen now, but they're not originally from here. They've got dual nationality and they travel to North America every so often to visit family. And for that reason, they held concerns with regard to the recording of a conviction. Drink driving isn't a criminal matter, it's a traffic matter so you don't get a criminal conviction for drink driving, but you do get, generally, a recorded traffic conviction and recorded traffic convictions can cause difficulties in some countries on entry or attempted entry.

It's not easy to get, especially for high range. You'll generally have a better chance of getting no traffic conviction record for low or mid range during driving. But with high range, it can be quite difficult. And when I push forward, I was preparing written submissions of case law and other supporting documents, which I did do on this instance. I've got my client to complete the reformatory course, we get all of our clients to do. Got them to get character references based on the template we provide all of our clients. I prepared all my submissions and written submissions in advance, emailed them to the court in advance. Flew up last night from Brisbane to Cairns, stayed at Cairns, drove up this morning, met the client at court. We grabbed the conference room. I ran through my submissions, what you can expect to happen, the procedure, what the police are likely to say, what the magistrate, formality wise, it's likely to say.

We went in there. I referred to the written submissions I already prepared, made substantial verbal submissions on my feet, particularly with regard to the recording of the conviction, but also the length of the disqualification. Obviously there's not much public transport up here, so any day off the road is a day that you're facing unemployment. Unlike if you work in Brisbane city and live at New Farm, not having a licence, really not the end of the world, whereas in regions like this it can be. Long and short of it is I was successful on both fronts. A, I was able to persuade the magistrate not to go past the management minimum six month to qualification. And B, I was able to persuade the magistrate not to record a conviction. So six month disqualification, a modest fine. And more importantly to this client, no conviction recorded.

Client's very happy. I'm Andrew Wiseman at Mossman Magistrates Court near Port Douglas, thanks for watching.