Navigating DUI Dismissals
- To learn how to get your DUI dismissed, a key step is assessing if your DUI charge resulted from an illegal police stop. Identifying this illegality would likely result in successfully dismissing your DUI charge.
- In this blog I am going to explain Illegal Police Stops in the context of DUI charges.
Understanding Legitimate Police Stops
For every DUI case, the Police need to establish that they had a legally valid reason to pull you over. Generally, there are 4 reasons the Police can legally stop you.
- License Check – The Police can stop you to check the validity of your driver’s license.
- Safety Inspection – The Police can stop you if they believe your vehicle is not safe or unfit to be driven on the road.
- Suspected Traffic Offence – The Police can stop you if they believe you have committed an offence under the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.
- Report of Impairment – The Police can stop you if they have received a call about you being impaired.
The Limits of Legal Stops
- The police have wide-ranging reasons that can justify a traffic stop that resulted in your DUI charge. If they prove your stop fits these categories, it narrows the path to challenging your DUI charge based on an illegal stop.
- However, not all police stops conform to these broad criteria. Some fall outside these legally acceptable reasons.
Illegal Stops and Racial Profiling
- Stops based on race, ethnicity, or religion, known as racial profiling, are not legally permissible reasons for a police stop.
- If racial profiling led to your stop and subsequent DUI charge, the charge can be dismissed based on charter rights violations.
Charter Rights and Your Defense
- The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically Section 9, protects you from ‘arbitrary detention’, which includes stops based on racial profiling.
- If your stop was illegal, like one based on racial profiling, any evidence obtained is inadmissible in court. So, even if there was impairment, your DUI charge would be dismissed due to the initial illegality of the stop.
What are the legal reasons for a police stop in a DUI case?
In DUI cases, police must have a legally valid reason to stop you. The four primary reasons are: a license check to verify the driver's license, a safety inspection if the vehicle appears unsafe, a suspected traffic offense under the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, and a report of driver impairment.
Can my DUI charge be dismissed due to an illegal police stop?
Yes, a DUI charge can be dismissed if it resulted from an illegal police stop, such as one based on racial profiling. Under Section 9 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, such stops are considered 'arbitrary detention', making any evidence obtained inadmissible in court.
