Client, an American engineer, was arrested at the Canadian border and charged with a DWI with a high blood-alcohol concentration in Quebec. Conviction would have meant high fines, some jail time, loss of driver’s license but more importantly, loss of his job and the inability to enter Canada where his wife and child resided at the time. Client was overseeing a construction project worth over 30 million dollars close to the American-Canadian border.

After carefully reviewing the evidence, the charging instruments and relevant Canadian criminal statutes, we discovered that blood tests were not conducted within two hours of the arrest and that no notice of such had been provided to us, as was mandated by law. As a result, we were able to convince the crown prosecutor to dismiss the charges against our client, decision which was endorsed by the presiding judge. Client walked away with no fines, no probation, no loss of license. He was able to keep his job and this incident did not affect his ability to freely enter Canada.