The short answer is yes. You can fight an Immediate Roadside Prohibition in British Columbia. But the longer, more honest answer is that success depends heavily on the specific grounds available in your case, and many reviews fail. Here’s what you need to know before deciding whether to pursue one.
How IRP Reviews Work
The IRP review process is administered by RoadSafetyBC, also known as the office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles. It’s not a court process. There’s no judge, no live testimony, and no in-person hearing. The review is conducted on the basis of written materials or a telephone call: your application, your evidence, and the materials submitted by police.
To request a review, you must apply within 7 days of the IRP being issued. This is a hard deadline. Missing it means you lose the right to challenge the IRP administratively. You submit your application online or in person at a driver licensing office.
There are two types of reviews: a written-form review and an oral review. The oral review often allows you to present a wider range of arguments and evidence. That is because written submissions are capped at 30 pages, not including witness statements and expert evidence about the ASD device. In an oral hearing, you can send in a 30-page written submission in addition to supporting evidence, and then make oral submissions in the review hearing.
What Grounds Can You Actually Use?
There are specific, recognized grounds for challenging an IRP. You cannot simply argue that you “didn’t feel impaired” or that the officer was wrong in their subjective assessment. The grounds include whether you were a driver, as that term is defined in the Motor Vehicle Act; whether the ASD result is reliable; whether you exceeded 80 mg of alcohol in 100 mL of blood; whether the second test procedures were properly followed; and, in refusal cases, whether you failed or refused to comply with a valid demand or whether you had a reasonable excuse for not complying.
When Reviews Succeed
Reviews are most likely to succeed when there’s a clear procedural failure on the part of police, for example, when the officer didn’t follow the required steps before or during the ASD test. Reviews also succeed when there’s credible evidence of a malfunction, such as ASD calibration records that show the device was expired, or when a medical condition plausibly explains the result. But these are by no means all the grounds and all the reasons reviews succeed.
When Reviews Fail
Here’s the honest reality: the review process is designed with a relatively limited scope. The Superintendent’s delegate does not weigh evidence the way a court does. If the police report shows the officer followed proper procedure, and there is nothing to call into question the result of the test, the review will typically uphold the IRP.
Reviews tend to fail when the applicant simply disputes the reading without providing any concrete basis for why it was inaccurate or supporting evidence to show what their blood alcohol level would have been. Sometimes, especially with self-represented people, the grounds raised are too general or not specifically tied to the procedural requirements of the IRP scheme.
It’s also worth noting that the prohibition remains in effect during the review period. You can’t drive while waiting for a result. So even a successful review often comes after the prohibition has already affected your life for several weeks.
After a Failed Review: Further Options
If the review is unsuccessful, you can apply to the BC Supreme Court for judicial review of the Superintendent’s decision. This is a higher-bar, more time-consuming process that reviews whether the Superintendent’s decision was legally reasonable. The court does not look at whether you were actually impaired. Judicial review is the next step after an unsuccessful decision if you wish to keep fighting.
Should You Pursue a Review?
The answer depends on what happened in your specific case. If there’s a clear procedural issue, something the officer did or didn’t do, or evidence to show a problem with the ASD, a review is worth pursuing. Only a lawyer with all the relevant information and a chance to review the police report in detail can answer that question for sure.
The best way to assess this is to speak with a lawyer before the 7-day deadline. An experienced DUI lawyer can look at the specific facts of your case, request police disclosure, and give you an honest assessment of whether there are viable grounds to pursue.
