#138 Townsville Drink Driving

Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Townsville 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.

Right. Today, I'm at Townsville Magistrates Court, client was charged with mid-range drink driving, reading of 0.134. Worst case is a 12 month loss of licence, the mandatory minimum's technically three months, but that does kick in at 0.1. So obviously, 0.134's quite a bit past that. High-range starts at 0.15 and that's a minimum of six months. So obviously, with 0.136, he's halfway between that. But as I said, worst case 12, minimum three. Given he's in the military, he held grave concerns with regard to the recording of the conviction. So as much as my job was one of getting the disqualification down as low as possible, it was also one of trying to get no conviction recorded.

As far as preparing goes, I got him to complete an online reformatory course, got him to get some references based on a template we provide all of our clients, got him to give his instructions prior to today. And obviously, I prepared by submissions prior to today. I drafted written submissions on the relevant case law regarding recording of convictions. Met my client this morning, we grabbed a conference room, ran through my submissions, what he could expect the magistrate and the prosecutor to say. Ultimately, the magistrate was talking about giving him a seven month disqualification, but just with some forceful submissions on my feet and referring to the steps he's taken and the case law, et cetera, I was able to persuade the magistrate to stick to four months, which is a very good outcome for that reading 0.136. But more importantly for my client, I was able persuade the magistrate not to record a conviction. So, four month disqualification, modest fine, no conviction recorded, client's very happy. I'm Andrew Wiseman at Townsville Magistrates Court, thanks for watching.