Calgary · Drinking and Driving
Drinking and Driving Lawyer
Immediate Roadside Sanction (IRS)
This program came into effect in Alberta on December 1, 2020 and largely replaces Criminal Code charges for impaired driving in most first-offence matters.
If you are stopped by police and “fail” the roadside breathalyzer test, you will be subject to severe penalties. The same is true if you refuse or are physically unable to blow an adequate breath sample. These penalties include:
- Licence Suspension: 90 days (beginning immediately), followed by 12 months of participation in the Ignition Interlock Program
- Vehicle Seizure: 30 days
- Fine: $1,000, plus a 20% surcharge
The penalties if you get caught a 2nd or 3rd time increase dramatically!
Moving On From Your Charge
Impaired Driving Charges (Criminal Code)
Criminal Code impaired driving charges under section 320.14 include driving while impaired, driving while your blood alcohol concentration is over the legal limit, and refusing or failing to provide a breath or blood sample. These are federal offences prosecuted by the Crown.
At our Calgary-based defence firm, Muenz Criminal Law, we offer personalized criminal defence strategies to help protect your legal rights and privileges.
You only have 7 days from the time the IRS was issued to appeal these penalties by filing for an IRS Review.
Call or contact us as soon as possible. We have conducted hundreds of IRS Reviews. We can assess whether you may succeed in your appeal and conduct the IRS Review on your behalf.
What Are You Facing?
If you are convicted of impaired driving under the Criminal Code, you will receive a criminal record, a fine, a driving prohibition, and significant increases in your insurance rates. Depending on the circumstances of your case, you could also be facing incarceration.
If you are charged with impaired driving, you will also likely receive an immediate 15-month provincial license suspension. Part of our legal strategy includes arguing as to why your license suspension should be cancelled.
Drinking & Impaired Driving Legal Representation in Calgary, Alberta
An impaired driving conviction can have devastating consequences and you need an experienced criminal defence lawyer in your corner.
Our Calgary criminal defence lawyers at Muenz Criminal Defence will thoroughly review the circumstances of your case and evaluate the strength of the Crown’s case against you. We will identify possible defences in your case including violations of your constitutional rights, and weaknesses or inconsistencies in the police disclosure(s). We will help you understand your options as well as the potential consequences of the choices you will have to make.
What You Should Do Following an Impaired Driving Charge
If you have been stopped and issued penalties or charged in connection with impaired driving in Alberta, it is important to understand which of two very different regimes applies to you.
A Criminal Code charge is federal. Impaired driving under section 320.14 of the Criminal Code is prosecuted by the Crown and, if it results in a conviction, carries a criminal record, a fine, a driving prohibition, and in some cases incarceration.
An Immediate Roadside Sanction (IRS) is provincial and administrative. Since December 1, 2020, most first-offence impaired driving matters in Alberta proceed as an IRS under the Traffic Safety Act rather than as a Criminal Code prosecution. An IRS carries immediate consequences (a 90-day licence suspension, a 12-month Ignition Interlock requirement, a 30-day vehicle seizure, and a fine plus surcharge) but does not result in a criminal record. You have 7 days from the date of the sanction to file an IRS Review.
Dangerous driving is a separate Criminal Code offence under section 320.13. If you have been charged with dangerous driving, it is a criminal matter, not an administrative sanction.
Downstream consequences of a criminal record
An IRS does not create a criminal record. A Criminal Code impaired driving conviction does. If a conviction under the Criminal Code is entered against you, that record can affect your life for years afterwards.
With a criminal record, you may have trouble:
- Applying for citizenship
- Traveling across the Canada-US border
- Finding employment
- Difficulties in family court, or child custody cases
- Accessing scholarships or educational opportunities in programs such as medicine, child care, and banking or accounting
We will help you develop a defence strategy that aligns with your priorities, whether that is reinstating your driver’s licence, avoiding a criminal record, or resolving the matter with the least impact on your life going forward.
Frequently asked
Questions we hear most.
Yes, but the deadline is extremely short. A request for review must ordinarily be filed within seven days of the date the Notice of Administrative Penalty was issued. The challenge is called an IRS review and is decided by a SafeRoads Alberta adjudicator; it is not a criminal trial.
Possible grounds depend on the circumstances and may concern the legal basis for the sanction, the reliability or operation of the screening instrument, compliance with testing procedures, whether the person was driving, or whether a refusal or failure to provide a sample was reasonably established. The police materials and any supporting evidence must be reviewed promptly.
A first IRS: FAIL ordinarily results in:
- An immediate 90-day licence suspension;
- A further 12 months during which the driver may participate in the ignition-interlock program;
- A 30-day vehicle seizure;
- A $1,000 administrative penalty plus a 20% victim fine surcharge; and
- Completion of the required remedial education program.
A driver who does not participate in the ignition-interlock program cannot legally drive during the additional suspension period. Penalties increase considerably for subsequent occurrences.
No. An IRS is a provincial administrative penalty and does not, by itself, result in a criminal conviction or criminal record. However, it still carries serious consequences, including an immediate licence suspension, vehicle seizure, a financial penalty and possible participation in an ignition-interlock program.
A conviction for an impaired-driving offence under the Criminal Code is different. It results in a criminal record and may also involve a court-imposed driving prohibition, a fine and, in more serious cases, imprisonment.
An Immediate Roadside Sanction, commonly called an IRS, is an administrative penalty issued under Alberta’s provincial impaired-driving system. It is not a criminal charge and is reviewed through SafeRoads Alberta rather than decided in criminal court.
Since the introduction of the IRS program, most first-time impaired-driving investigations in Alberta are dealt with administratively. Criminal Code charges are less common but may still be laid, particularly in serious cases involving bodily harm or death, repeat offenders or other aggravating circumstances. In some cases, a person may receive both an IRS and criminal charges.
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