Criminal Driving Lawyer In Edmonton
Do You Need a Criminal Driving Lawyer?
Have you been charged with fleeing the scene of a crime or evading arrest? A criminal driving lawyer will help you protect your rights and explain the legal implications of your charges. We have handled hundreds of criminal driving cases and have the experience necessary to present and aggressive defence strategy on your behalf. If you have been charged with a criminal driving offense, we advise you to contact our office immediately and seek legal counsel.
What are the Criminal Driving Offences?
The Criminal Code makes it a criminal offence to engage in certain types of driving activities. These driving activities are dealt with much more severely than traffic offences, and, if convicted, will result in a criminal record and other criminal sanctions.
Criminal driving offences include the offence of driving while prohibited from doing so, fleeing the scene of a collision, fleeing police vehicles, and driving dangerously. Some of these offences, such as fleeing the police, are fairly self-descriptive and easy to understand. Other offences, such as dangerous driving, present a continuum of behavior from non-criminal momentary distractions to criminal driving patterns; it can be very difficult for laypeople – and difficult even for lawyers – to identify where criminal behavior begins and ends.
What are the Potential Penalties?
Dangerous driving, hit and run, flight from police, and drive while prohibited all carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. However, criminal driving offences which result in harm or death to others can carry a maximum penalty of up to life in prison.
Moreover, the Criminal Code lays out a number of aggravating factors (circumstances that will make a sentence more severe), including whether the accused person was racing, whether there was a passenger in the vehicle under the age of 16, whether the accused person was being paid to drive, whether the vehicle was large, etc. Finally, convictions for criminal driving offences are almost always accompanied by a driving prohibition beginning at a 1-year duration.
Get Advice
Criminal driving offences not only have the potential to result in a criminal record and other criminal sanctions but may also result in driving suspensions which could affect an accused person’s employment, mobility, and financial status generally.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, contact our offices now so we can help address you or your loved one’s legal jeopardy. We are available 24/7. We are forceful advocates and we ensure that our clients throughout Alberta are provided with the best defence possible.
