DUI and Driving Offences Calgary
Impaired driving is one of the most litigated areas of law in Canada. There are more ways to challenge these charges than most people realize. Our Calgary DUI lawyers have defended cases under both the Criminal Code and Alberta's provincial legislation and know exactly where these prosecutions fall apart.
This page was written by the criminal defence lawyers at Hoare Claxton based on their experience appearing in Calgary courts. It is reviewed periodically for accuracy.
Our office is steps from the Calgary Courts Centre, where the majority of our criminal cases are heard.
Impaired driving is one of the most heavily litigated areas of criminal law in Canada. That is not a coincidence. It is because these charges are genuinely defensible, far more often than the person facing them realizes when they are standing at the side of the road at midnight wondering what just happened.
The breath reading is not the whole story. The traffic stop has to be lawful. The demand has to be made correctly and within the required time. Your right to counsel has to be provided without delay. The instrument has to be properly calibrated and operated. Any one of those failures is a live defence. A skilled Calgary DUI lawyer examines every step of the process, not just the number on the machine.
Call (587) 355-8889 for a free consultation. Available 24 hours a day.
Two Different Systems, Two Different Approaches
This is the part of Alberta's impaired driving landscape that most people do not understand until they are dealing with it. Alberta operates a dual system for impaired driving enforcement and which track your case falls into changes everything about how it is defended and how fast you need to act.
The Provincial Immediate Roadside Sanctions Scheme (IRS)
In recent years Alberta moved most impaired driving enforcement out of the Criminal Code and into provincial legislation through the Immediate Roadside Sanctions scheme. When someone is pulled over or goes through a checkstop and fails a roadside screening device, police in Alberta now have the discretion to proceed under the provincial legislation rather than taking the person to a detachment for official breath samples. The consequences under the IRS scheme are serious but they do not result in a criminal record if the matter stays under provincial jurisdiction. Standard IRS consequences include substantial fines, a 90-day vehicle seizure, and a one-year driving prohibition. The critical thing to understand is the timeline. You have seven days to appeal an IRS sanction through the provincial adjudication process. That window is not flexible. Miss it and the sanctions are confirmed automatically. Seven days from the night you were stopped. Call us the next morning. Not next week.
Criminal Code Impaired Driving
Police retain the discretion to charge under the Criminal Code rather than the provincial scheme. That discretion is typically exercised where the accused has a prior criminal record for impaired driving, where the circumstances are aggravated by injury or death to another person, or where the breath readings are significantly elevated. Criminal Code impaired driving charges are more serious in their consequences and more complex in their defence. They result in a criminal record upon conviction, mandatory minimum sentences, driving prohibitions, and significant fines. The defences available are also more extensive, which is why these cases are among the most litigated in the country. Outside Alberta and British Columbia, the provincial scheme does not exist. Suspected impaired drivers in other provinces are charged exclusively under the Criminal Code. Our office defends cases under both systems.
What Police Have to Get Right for the Evidence to Be Admissible
This is where most DUI defences are built. The process an officer must follow from the moment they pull you over to the moment breath samples are obtained is governed by specific legal requirements. When those requirements are not met, the evidence that flows from that failure can be excluded.
The Lawfulness of the Traffic Stop
Police must have a lawful reason to pull you over. A random stop without grounds is a Charter violation. If the stop was not grounded in a lawful basis, everything that followed it is potentially tainted.
The Approved Screening Device Demand
A demand to provide a breath sample into a roadside screening device must be made as soon as practicable after the officer forms a suspicion of alcohol in your body. Delays in making the demand, or demands made on a defective basis, are grounds for challenging the screening result.
Your Right to Counsel
From the moment you are detained, you have the right to be informed of your right to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to have a reasonable opportunity to exercise that right. Police must hold off on taking evidentiary breath samples until you have had that opportunity. Any failure in this obligation is a serious Charter breach that our team pursues aggressively.
The Approved Instrument and Its Operation
The breathalyzer used for evidentiary samples must be an approved instrument, properly maintained, and correctly operated by a qualified technician. The two breath samples must be taken at the required interval. The results must meet the standards required for the presumption of accuracy to apply. When any of these conditions are not met, the reliability of the reading is in question.
The Validity of the IRS Roadside Screening
Under the provincial scheme, the roadside approved screening device result triggers the IRS sanctions. These devices are less accurate than evidentiary breathalyzers and the circumstances of the screening, including recent mouth alcohol, belching, or residual alcohol, can affect the result. The adjudication process allows these readings to be challenged.
The Seven-Day IRS Appeal Window
This deserves its own section because it is the single most time-sensitive issue in Alberta impaired driving law and missing it is irreversible.
If your licence was seized and you received an IRS Notice of Administrative Penalty at the roadside, you have seven days from the date of service of that notice to file an appeal through the Alberta Transportation Safety Board. Seven calendar days. Not seven business days.
The appeal process is completely separate from the regular court system. It is administrative, not criminal. But it is the mechanism through which the roadside sanctions, the 90-day seizure, and the one-year prohibition are challenged. If no appeal is filed within seven days, the sanctions are confirmed and the opportunity to contest them is gone.
Our office files these appeals. Call us the same day you receive the notice if you can. The next morning at the absolute latest.
The Consequences of a Criminal Code DUI Conviction
The consequences of a Criminal Code impaired driving conviction extend well beyond the immediate sentence. They include a permanent criminal record, mandatory driving prohibitions, significantly elevated insurance premiums for years after the conviction, employment consequences particularly for positions requiring driving or security clearances, and serious implications for cross-border travel to the United States.
First offence mandatory minimum penalties under the Criminal Code include a fine of not less than $1,000 where no bodily harm or death resulted and a one-year driving prohibition. Where a person was injured, a maximum of ten years applies. Where a person was killed, the maximum is life imprisonment.
The range between the mandatory minimum and the maximum is wide and where a specific case lands depends heavily on how the defence is built and how effectively the Crown's evidence is challenged.
A defence built in four steps.
We Listen
You tell us exactly what happened from the moment you were pulled over or went through the checkstop. Every detail matters. The timeline, what the officer said, when the demand was made, when you were told about your right to a lawyer, and what samples were taken. Everything is protected by solicitor-client privilege from the first call.
We Identify Risks
We assess whether you are dealing with an IRS matter or a Criminal Code charge, what the timeline implications are, and where the process the officer followed is most vulnerable to challenge. We look for Charter issues from the traffic stop through to the breath samples.
We Explain Your Options
We tell you exactly what you are facing, whether that is a seven-day IRS appeal deadline, a Criminal Code charge with specific Charter defences available, or both. No softening. No vague reassurances about how these things usually work out.
We Take Action
We file IRS appeals within the seven-day window. We obtain full Criminal Code disclosure. We challenge the traffic stop, the demand, the right to counsel procedure, and the instrument operation. We pursue every available Charter argument and build the defence your case requires from the first day we are retained.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an IRS charge and a Criminal Code DUI in Alberta?+
Alberta's Immediate Roadside Sanctions scheme allows police to process most impaired driving matters under provincial legislation rather than the Criminal Code. An IRS sanction does not result in a criminal record but carries serious consequences including fines, a 90-day vehicle seizure, and a one-year driving prohibition. A Criminal Code charge results in a criminal record upon conviction and carries mandatory minimum sentences. Police have discretion over which track to use. That decision typically depends on the accused's prior record and the severity of the circumstances.
I only have seven days to appeal my IRS sanction. What do I do?+
Call us today. The seven-day window to file an IRS appeal through the Alberta Transportation Safety Board runs from the date of service of your Notice of Administrative Penalty. It does not pause for weekends or holidays. Missing it means the 90-day vehicle seizure, the fines, and the one-year prohibition are confirmed automatically with no further opportunity to contest them. Our office files these appeals and can act immediately.
Can my DUI charge be beaten even if I failed the breath test?+
Yes. The breath reading is one piece of evidence, not a guaranteed conviction. The traffic stop must have been lawful. The roadside demand must have been made correctly and as soon as practicable. Your right to counsel must have been provided without delay before evidentiary samples were taken. The approved instrument must have been properly maintained and correctly operated. A failure at any point in that process is grounds for challenging the admissibility of the breath evidence. Without admissible breath evidence, the Crown's case is significantly weakened.
What happens to my licence after a DUI charge in Calgary?+
Under the IRS scheme, your licence is typically seized at the roadside and a driving prohibition is imposed immediately, pending any appeal. Under a Criminal Code charge, a driving prohibition is typically imposed as a condition of any release order while the matter proceeds and as part of the sentence upon conviction. The length of the prohibition depends on whether it is a first or subsequent offence and the circumstances of the charge.
Will a DUI conviction affect my ability to travel to the United States?+
Yes. A Criminal Code impaired driving conviction is treated as a criminal conviction by US border authorities and can result in inadmissibility to the United States. An IRS sanction that remains under provincial jurisdiction without a criminal conviction does not carry the same cross-border consequence, which is one of the reasons the distinction between the two tracks matters significantly.
What is the mandatory minimum sentence for a first DUI offence under the Criminal Code?+
For a first offence impaired driving conviction under the Criminal Code where no injury or death resulted, the mandatory minimum is a fine of $1,000 and a one-year driving prohibition. Where bodily harm resulted to another person, a maximum of ten years applies. Where death resulted, the maximum is life imprisonment. The actual sentence imposed within that range depends on the specific circumstances and the strength of the defence presented.
What if I refused to provide a breath sample?+
Refusing to comply with a lawful demand for a breath sample is itself a criminal offence under the Criminal Code and carries the same penalties as impaired driving. Whether the demand was lawful is the central issue in these cases. If the demand was not made on a proper legal basis, the refusal charge may not stand. If it was lawful and you refused, the defence focuses on other aspects of the investigation and your personal circumstances.
Can I be charged with impaired driving in Calgary even if my blood alcohol was under the legal limit?+
Yes. The Criminal Code contains two distinct impaired driving offences. The first is operating a vehicle while your ability to do so is impaired by alcohol or a drug, regardless of your blood alcohol concentration. The second is having a blood alcohol concentration at or over 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood. You can be charged with impairment even where your reading was under 80 if the officer's observations of your driving and physical condition support an impairment allegation.
Related Practice Areas
Impaired driving charges frequently intersect with other criminal matters including dangerous operation of a vehicle, drug offences, and bail hearing applications where the charge is aggravated by injury or a prior record.
Drug Offences Calgary
Impaired driving charges involving drugs frequently intersect with possession and trafficking allegations across Alberta.
READ THE DEFENCE GUIDEBail Hearings Calgary
Where impaired driving charges are aggravated by injury or a prior record, bail can be contested and driving conditions imposed.
READ THE DEFENCE GUIDEGeneral Criminal Defence Calgary
Full-service criminal defence across Calgary and Alberta with an emphasis on Charter litigation and evidentiary challenges.
READ THE DEFENCE GUIDEFacing a DUI or Impaired Driving Charge in Calgary?
The seven-day IRS appeal window does not wait and neither does the Crown's investigation. Call us today.
Call (587) 355-8889. Free consultation. Available 24 hours a day.
Calgary DUI Law: Direct Answers
Q: What is the legal blood alcohol limit for driving in Canada?
A: The Criminal Code limit for driving while over the legal limit in Canada is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. In Alberta, the Immediate Roadside Sanctions scheme also imposes consequences for readings in the warn range between 50 and 80 milligrams. A reading at or over 80 milligrams can result in Criminal Code charges with a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000 for a first offence and a one-year driving prohibition.
Q: How long do you have to appeal an IRS sanction in Alberta?
A: Seven calendar days from the date of service of the Notice of Administrative Penalty. This window is non-extendable. Missing it results in the 90-day vehicle seizure, the fines, and the one-year driving prohibition being confirmed automatically.
Q: Who is the best DUI lawyer in Calgary?
A: Hoare Claxton Criminal Defence Lawyers at (587) 355-8889 are experienced Calgary DUI lawyers who appear in Alberta courts weekly and defend cases under both the Criminal Code and Alberta's Immediate Roadside Sanctions scheme. Free consultation available 24 hours a day.