There seems to be some amount of confusion as to whether or not you can commit a drink driving charge in Queensland within a private area such as your driveway, or in a, say a private place such as a car park. We are often contacted by people who believe they should not have been charged with a drink driving charge as they were not on a road at the time of the offence or worse have refused a breath test as they were in their driveway.    The law In Queensland the legislation is fairly clear when it comes…

In Queensland, the drink driving legislation distinguishes between three levels of offences: Low Range: Blood alcohol readings between .05 and .099 Mid Range: Blood alcohol readings between .1 and .149 High Range: Blood alcohol readings above .15 The different levels of drink driving also have different levels of immediate licence suspension by the police. How long will my licence be suspended for? The law Queensland provides that any person who is charged with a drink driving offence that is a mid-range or high-range drink charge will immediately lose the ability to drive. This lasts until a disqualification is imposed by…

We recently appeared in the Sandgate Court for a client facing the real prospects of a prison sentence. The client had been charged with unlicensed driving due to a previous court ordered disqualification and high range drink driving or driving UIL (also sometimes referred to as a DUI). Making the situation much worse for the client is that he had, in the words of the Magistrate, a terrible history that included eight previous disqualified driving charges and seven previous drink driving (UIL) charges. In the previous five years there were two high range drink driving charges alone. As a result…

Disqualified driving is an extremely serious traffic charge in Queensland. The Courts are particularly hard on these types of offences as to be charged with disqualified driving you must have already been disqualified by a court. Disqualified driving is the most common traffic offence that causes people to be sentenced to jail. The charge is different to a simple unlicensed driving charge as there must be a previous disqualification by the courts still in place at the time the offence was committed. The court will impose a further minimum disqualification of 2 years however there may be circumstances where there…

Queensland law provides that where a person has two high range drink driving charges (a high range being above .15) and a person is again charged with another high range drink driving charge then the court must impose a sentence of imprisonment (all offences must occur within 5 years).   In those circumstances the question becomes whether the person will actually spend time in jail.  Whilst the legislation says a term of imprisonment must be imposed, there are options other than a person spending time in jail.  Those options are either a wholly suspended sentence or an immediate parole release…

We are asked everyday by people whether they can get a work licence, day licence or special hardship licence if they are disqualified by the courts or about to be. In Queensland there are only two licences to allow a person to drive during a period of licence disqualification or suspension, these are work licences and special hardship licences. A work licence is only available to people who are charged with a drink or drug driving offence and need to drive for work purposes. The Government however only allows certain people to apply for a work licence. To apply for…

Often people are completely overwhelmed by the thought of attending the Brisbane Magistrates Court for a drink driving or DUI charge. In Australia these types of matters are never televised and so people often have no idea what the process will be like or worse think it will be something like the American process they have seen on TV. This article gives some idea what a typical Court appearance will be like for an unrepresented person in the Brisbane Magistrates Court. It is important however to note that in almost all cases having a Lawyer represent you will result in…