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DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld

I recently flew from Brisbane to Roma to represent a client who had received a Queensland Transport Demerit Point Suspension. 

The client faced a 6 month licence suspension, but I was sucessful in applying for a Special Hardship Licence.

We service the entire state of Queensland, despite being based in Brisbane.

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld

When I attend regional courts I like to film episodes of our YouTube series 'Wiseman Lawyers Ride Alongs'.

I do this partly to show potential clients such as yourself what it is exactly that we do, and partly to prove that we do and will literally go anywhere in Queensland.

I can get a 6am flight out of Brisbane and be standing on the steps of court at Emerald for example at 8:30am waiting for the doors to open, and then be back in Brisbane in time for lunch.

Please find the YouTube episode below, along with a transcript for your convenience.

Regards

Andrew Wiseman

Ph: 1300947352 Email:  andrew.wiseman@wisemanlawyers.com.au

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld

RIDE ALONG:

Join Wiseman Lawyers Principal Solicitor Andrew Wiseman as he drives to Roma Magistrates Court. On the way to court, Andrew discusses his court matter for the day. On the way back to the airport, he explains the outcome and how it was achieved

Why not also check out the following epsiodes:

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld


ROMA MAGISTRATES COURT:


Andrew Wiseman applies for a Special Hardship Licence for a client at Roma Magistrates Court.

Don't lose your licence, Save Your Licence. Do the wise thing. Call Wiseman Lawyers today. 1300947352 or go to WisemanLawyers.com.au

Hi I'm Andrew Wiseman and welcome back to Wiseman Lawyers Court Ride Alongs: Roma Edition.

Once again, I'm Andrew Wiseman, Owner and Principal Solicitor of Wiseman Lawyers, Queensland's only truly dedicated traffic offence law firm. As I say in every episode, when I say "truly dedicated traffic offence law firm" all we do is Queensland traffic law, the prevention and minimisation of loss of licence, and the only courts that we service are Queensland courts. But that said, we do literally appear in every single court in Queensland. As I said, today I'm at Roma. In recent weeks, I've been in Gladstone, Mackay, Hervey Bay, you name it, and as you'll see from the images appearing on the screen now, we will, and do, literally go everywhere in Queensland.

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld

All right, the gentleman that's engaged me today he has received a Queensland Transport suspension, so his licence has been suspended for six months due to an accumulation of demerit points. So the way it works, is once a person gets 12 or more points over a 3-year period, they'll get a letter from Queensland Transport offering for them to elect between a 3-month driver's licence suspension, or what's called a 12 month good driving behavior period. He selected the good driver behavior period and the condition of that is if you get 2 or more points during those 12-months, you'll then receive a 6-month suspension. That's what's occurred in this instance, and now what we're doing is applying for what's called a special hardship order. In order to be eligible to apply for a special hardship order there's a few prerequisites. But in a nutshell, you can't have lost your licence for any reason the last 5 years, you must be the holder of a Queensland licence, and a few other bits and pieces.

Now, what we're doing today is we're applying to the Court for an order that will overlap the 6-month suspension, permitting my client to drive for work purposes only. So, it's effectively like a drink driving work license, except the reason for the application is due to a loss of points rather than drink driving. There's two hurdles that need to be overcome. One of them is hardship. Basically if you're self-employed, you need to provide detailed financials in an affidavit, among other items which I won't go into now, but a lot of unrepresented persons make the mistake of thinking that just by wearing their taxi driver shirt in court for example, that's enough said. But no, you must go into a lot of detail about the hardship that you'll suffer if you lose your licence.

And the other element that needs to be satisfied is the "fit and proper person" element, and that is the harder of the two. Generally if people have their documents in order, hardship's not difficult to prove. But "fit and proper person" is and there's a number of steps we get our clients to do to show that they've reformed since losing their licence, and there's also other elements that we address in the affidavit materials setting out other characteristics that show that notwithstanding the fact that they're in this situation, they are a "fit and proper" person for one last chance.

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld

Now this gentleman, he's a self-employed truck driver, so obviously if he loses his licence, he will lose his trucking business. He's the only employee, so if he's not behind the wheel, the income stops. His family relies on him. So, yeah, that's what I'm here to do today. Get him a special hardship licence. I've already drafted all the affidavit materials, which have been filed with the Court in advance. And yeah, so pretty straightforward as far as the facts. It's not as exciting as some of the other videos that you've seen.

Factually, the way that he breached the good driving behavior period was he was driving a truck. He approached a T-junction and there was road works surrounding that T-junction and because of those road works he didn't see the Give Way sign and as a consequence he entered the intersection without giving way and there was a policeman at the road works who has seen him and giving him a ticket. So, a bit of an unfortunate situation but he's gone straight onwards and yeah, here I am today at Roma about to go into the Roma Magistrates Court to apply for a special hardship licence.

All right, so I'm just pulling up to the Courthouse now, so I'll just find a park. And yeah, once I'm done I'll let you know how we went.

Colin of Hamilton writes, "Wiseman Lawyers took a holistic approach to my case. I was given the lowest possible disqualification. Thank you to Wiseman Lawyers for your professional and outstanding representation. I feel the outcome could have been worse if I opted to represent myself or had taken on another firm that may have been a little bit cheaper. My livelihood was saved instead of immediate termination. Five star service and you're definitely getting what you pay for."

Righto. Job done. All right, application granted. It was a bit of hard work to be honest, because as the Magistrate pointed out, the client had accumulated 40 demerit points in the last 10 years and this was the third demerit point disqualification that he received in that time. So I had my work cut out for me persuading the Magistrate to give him a special hardship order given his traffic history, which wasn't ideal to say the least. But as I said, given the elements that I had covered in the affidavit materials and the steps that my client took after we asked him to do so, prior to the Court date, we were able to persuade the Magistrate that on balance he is a "fit and proper" person to be given one final chance and his application was granted. He was granted a 24-hour day/7-day work licence, so he can work at anytime day or night. And yeah, needless to say the client's very happy. He's not going to lose his business, won't lose his house, and given that he is his family's sole financial provider yeah, the rest of the family's not going to be jeopardised either. So, that's me for today at Roma. I'm heading back to the Roma airport now for my flight back to Brisbane. And yeah, I'll see you next time, thanks for watching.

DUI Drink Driving Drug Driving Wiseman Lawyers Brisbane Qld


 


Queenslanders charged with DUI Drink Driving, Drug Driving or Fail To Provide Specimen face a maximum penalty of a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification, 9 months imprisonment and 28 penalty units.
Persons charged with Careless Driving (Drive Without Due Care & Attention) face a maximum penalty of a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification, 6 months imprisonment and 40 penalty units.
Queenslanders charged with Dangerous Driving, which is a Criminal offence, face a maximum penalty, depending upon the circumstances of aggravation, of 5 years imprisonment, 200 penalty units and a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification.
Persons charged with Disqualified Driving face a maximum penalty of a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification, 12 months imprisonment and 40 penalty units.
Queenslanders charged with Evade Police a maximum penalty of 3 years imprisonment, 200 penalty units and a lifetime licence disqualification.
Persons charged with Repeat DUI Drink Driving, Repeat Drug Driving, Repeat Fail To Provide Specimen, or a Repeat combination of these offences, face a maximum penalty of a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification, 18 months imprisonment and 60 penalty units.
A penalty unit in Queensland is currently worth $113.85.
In addition to the above penalties, anyone who pleads or is found guilty in the Magistrates Court must pay the Offender Levy, which is presently worth $110.90.
Magistrates have a general power to impose up to a lifetime driver’s licence disqualification, above and beyond any legislated disqualification ranges.
Wiseman Lawyers specialise in DUI Drink Driving, Drug Driving, Careless & Dangerous Driving, Evade Police and Drug, Alcohol & Traffic offences.