IRP Update for Those Who Missed the 7-Days to Dispute
If you received a 90-day IRP for Fail and you are still not back on the road due to the Interlock or Responsible Driver’s Program, give us a call.
A great number of people received a 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition for Fail and did not file a dispute of the IRP at ICBC Driver Services within 7-days from service of the Notice.
When the law was found to violate the Charter of Rights by the BC Supreme Court in November, we felt that all of the IRPs should be lifted to avoid further punishing people with an unconstitutional law. Of course the Government disagreed and took the position that they should be able to simply deal with this through the OSMV and by writing new legislation.
The matter was left in limbo until June. We expect that in April or May we will see what the Government plans to propose. One thing we expect is that the Government will argue each point every step of the way.
We have been of the view that because we could apply to Court and get an interim stay of the IRP, everyone should be entitled to an interim stay. This would avoid a flood of petitions. But different people fall into different categories. For example, there are the people who did not file for a review within the 7-day window.
We could have filed Petitions right away for people in this situation. We could anticipate, however, that the Government would take the position at some point that because these individuals did not file for a remedy at the first stage, i.e. the OSMV, they were disallowed from seeking a remedy at Court. To head this off we first wrote to seek extensions of the 7-day period.
When the OSMV did not render decisions, essentially blocking our clients from obtaining a remedy, we filed to get a Court order to make them render decisions. And then the decisions started coming and our fax machine was busy for a few days.
The next step was that we filed Petitions to appeal those decisions so we could have the IRPs put aside until the matters in Court were resolved.
Where we are now
Because it is absurd to make everyone write for an extension, lawyers for the Government have now agreed that we can bypass this first step and simply file the Petition without first having a decision from the OSMV to appeal.
There is a downside risk to skipping the first step of requesting an extension to file for review. The Government may later argue that petitioners cannot obtain a remedy from the Court because they did not dispute their matter at the first venue.
Bearing in mind the duration of time since the initial ruling in Sivia, the test to seek an extension may prohibit this remedy in any event. Simply put, to seek an extension of the 7-day appeal period you need to be reasonably prompt in doing so. Now that it is February, an extension request may not be viewed as reasonably prompt.
So we are now advising people to consider skipping this first step so that they can get their license back right away. We are filing Petitions without first seeking a remedy from the OSMV. We are skipping the OSMV, despite the potential pitfalls, because at this point in time it makes less sense to request an extension of the 7-days.
If you want us to file the Petition for you so you can get your license back while all of this is dealt with in Court, give us a call.
