If you get charged with drink driving in Australia, you have every reason to be concerned. Each week many people lose their driver’s licenses because of drink driving laws. Your main defence will be to get a competent and experienced lawyer to take up your case as quickly as possible. They are the only ones who can make sure you get fair representation.
What Can Happen
Drunk driving cases are very common. If you’re caught with a blood alcohol level of between 0.05 and 0.079, you will be charged with a low range PCA charge. Even though this is a relatively minor offence as far as these things go, the magistrate you’ll face might have another idea. Some of them are very big on sending messages that they will not tolerate any form of drunk driving. The most common penalty you’ll run into is a driver’s license disqualification and a fine. If this is a repeat offence, the penalties can be much more severe. If the incident was dangerous or you’ve been caught before drink driving, you will be looking at a prison sentence. Be glad that you are at the low range of this particular class of crimes. The mid and high ranges have penalties that are extremely severe. You are not out of the woods even with a low range offence. The maximum fine you can be levied is $1,100. You can also suffer from license disqualification for a six-month term. If you’ve had any other major traffic problems, then it will be much longer.
Hire an Experienced Lawyer
The smart thing for you to do is hire an experienced lawyer who does a lot of work with drink driving cases. He’ll understand how the system works. He can fight for you so you stay out of jail or maintain your license for work. As you can imagine, a conviction like this can hurt you when it comes to having a career. Some employers may pass on you because of it. Obviously, jobs that involve driving could be off the table. There are consequences to your actions. It’s your job to minimise the negative consequences as much as you can. That’s exactly what a lawyer does. They argue on your behalf to get you the possible sentencing they can. It’s usually impossible to argue the facts of a drink driving case. They have to argue about your character.
When losing your license and facing prison is on the line, you need to pull out all stops. Losing your job is not an acceptable outcome. That’s going to cost you a huge amount of money. Going to prison has a negative impact on all facets of your life. You need to fight all of these outcomes with all of your might. Failure to do that could cost you way too much. You can move beyond this incident. You need to mitigate the damages so you can return to your normal life with lessons learned.