Driving Prohibitions Versus Suspensions

Welcome back to the Kruse Law YouTube Channel. I want to discuss with you today driving prohibitions versus driving suspensions, and I’ll give you some examples on this. So, driving prohibitions occur under the Criminal Code, for example, an impaired driving conviction or a dangerous driving conviction, for example. So, let’s take impaired driving. So, under the Criminal Code, on a first-time conviction for a DUI, that’s the impaired driving charge, the judge has to take your licence for a mandatory minimum one year. Now they can take it longer if there’s aggravating circumstances, but it’s a mandatory minimum for a second conviction where the crown relies on notice of the prior conviction, the judge has to take it for mandatory minimum of two years, up to five years, they prohibit you from driving. For a third conviction that you have, so it’s your you’re pleading guilty, today, you have two priors, you’re facing a mandatory minimum of three years up to life. Now, lifetime might occur, for example, if you have multiple, multiple, multiple priors or dangerous driving causing death, in some cases, impaired to causing bodily harm, so the judge has discretion. Might be five years, might be eight years, might be the mandatory minimum, three years. Now the Ministry, what’s a license suspension? Well, a licensed suspension is imposed under the Highway Traffic Act. The Ministry is an administrative license suspension these they have a totally separate scheme, and sometimes it’s difficult to understand. But what the Ministry does, if it’s a first time DUI and the judge takes it for one year, the Ministry has to take it for the same one year. That’s a rule. And they run concurrently, meaning at the same time, now on a second offence within the previous 10 years. So if you plead guilty today and you’ve got a prior within 10 years, the Ministry will take it for three years. So that might be one year longer than the judge. So your service three years, you got the judges two, and then the Ministry tax on a three. So you know, you got that extra year. Now this is where the kicker comes in on a third offence, within 10 years, the Ministry is going to take your license for life, reviewable after 10 years. On a fourth offence, within 10 years, they’re going to take it for life. Your gone, it’s all over for you, you’ll never drive again. So, you know, there’s similar concepts. It’s prohibiting it from driving. The judge has discretion. There are mandatory minimums, and the judge can go higher.  With the Ministry, there is no discretion. There are very stipulated rules about how long they take. Sometimes the suspensions occur at the same time, for example, in one year. Sometimes the Ministry suspension is longer than the judges. Sometimes the judge’s prohibition is longer than the history. It really depends. But the important thing to note, and I review this in another video, you should look at that 10-year limitation period, because I just reviewed that very extensively. It’s a very important point regarding lifetime I talked about lifetime suspension. So, there you have it as a quick primer on driving prohibitions under the Criminal Code versus licensed suspensions under the Highway Traffic Act.