Posted November 12, 2016
Getting your driving prohibition is like negative billing: If you do nothing it will cost you a lot of money. You need to take some immediate steps if you want to dispute the prohibition and have it revoked. I get a lot of calls about this so I thought I would discuss it today. Now keep in mind, I am not a lawyer so no one should take this as legal advice, but there is plenty of information from RoadSafetyBC and ICBC out there and I thought I would bring some of it here for those who need it.
Some of these driving prohibition costs will include fines and penalties, the Responsible Driver Program (RDP) or Ignition Interlock Program (IIP). If you get a Notice of Driving Prohibition (what is commonly called an Immediate Roadside Prohibition or IRP) it will indicate you have a mere 7 days to apply for a review, so you don’t have a lot of time to make the request. The BC Government has a IRP review Guide to help you complete the one page: “Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) Application for Review” (form MV2726). The form is available at any ICBC Driver Licensing Centre (see icbc.com for locations) and can be submitted there when completed. The form has five parts. The upper part of the form requires your personal information (name, address, phone, driver’s license etc.) and the IRP number which you can obtain from the top right hand corner of your Notice of Driving Prohibition. Be sure to bring the Notice and some ID with you to the Driver Licensing Centre, along with the means to pay the $100 or $200 appeal fee.
Grounds for Review:
The next part of the form is the grounds for review and this can sometimes cause some confusion. You are supposed to check the box or boxes of the grounds for your review and there are several possible grounds to choose from. But how can you choose without having seen the disclosure documents that will be examined at the review? Those documents include all the evidence the police gathered with respect to your driving prohibition, but you won’t see them until after you complete and submit form MV2726. The listed grounds basically give you an idea which grounds you can raise and which you can’t. For instance, there are several acceptable grounds related to the operation and accuracy of the ASD, but some grounds, like hardship, are not acceptable and will not be considered. That’s right, even if you have very good personal reasons why should get your car and license back they will not be considered. If you think one or more of the acceptable grounds applies in your case, then check the appropriate box or boxes. Keep in mind that you may find something in the disclosure documents that gives you grounds that you hadn’t considered. Many people simply check them all.
Request for Review:
In this part of the form you have to identify one of the two ways reviews are conducted: an oral hearing or a written review. The choice is yours, but it costs more for the oral hearing ($200, vs $100 for the written review) and that fee is non-refundable, even if your IRP is revoked. For prohibitions of less than 30 days you can only have a written review. Most lawyers I work with like to have an oral review, probably because they are accustomed to making oral arguments in law courts. My written technical reports are submitted to my clients, who then submit these reports to the driving prohibition review. If you want to submit some information or other documents for consideration at the review, you can attach them to the Application for Review form, or you can submit them later. Later is more likely because then you will have had a chance to review the disclosure documents, and something there (or not there) may give you grounds for a review.
Disclosure:
This is the last part of the form to be completed. The Driver Licensing Centre staff may provide you with some or all of the disclosure documents and record it on this part of the form. If the disclosure documents are not available yet, they will take down a fax number so they can send them to you, or they will ask you or your representative to pick them up later.
That’s all there is to getting a review of your driver prohibition. That’s the easy part. The harder part is finding grounds for revoking the prohibition and providing that to the adjudicator handling your review. Of course you can retain a lawyer to do that part. If you do, your lawyer can act as your agent handling the request for a review and receiving the disclosure documents. This makes your life simpler, though at a cost.
Point 08 Forensic Alcohol Consultants specializes in reviewing the disclosure documents for errors and omissions. We cost a lot less than a lawyer, but we don’t act as your representative. That means you have to ask for the driving prohibition review yourself. You collect your disclosure documents, you send them to us, and then you submit our report to the written review or oral hearing.
RoadSafetyBC has a short video and a fact sheet explaining the driving prohibition review process that you might find informative.
Next time I’ll describe the disclosure documents.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to us at info@irpexpert.com.