Limousines and Alcohol: What’s Legal?

You’re the groom for your buddy’s wedding. You’ve rented a big limo. It’s his big day, and you’re gonna have a lot of fun. You’re gonna decide, for example, to drink in the back limo. Is that legal in Ontario, though? 

Well, obviously, many limousines companies allow this to go on, and in many cases, the police will look the other way, obviously. But is it really legal? Well, generally speaking, under the Liquor License Act of Ontario, you’re not supposed to drink in the back of a limo. There are exceptions to that, which I’ll get into, but most limousine companies do not have a license to allow you to drink the back of a limo. Clearly, a driver is not allowed to drink. These are the open container laws on the Liquor License Act, and there are significant fines if you’re caught that the police decide to charge you and don’t exercise their discretion, if I might put it that way, and the company can get fined the driver and yourself. And it’s kind of an embarrassing situation that happens. And certainly, as a lawyer, I would tell you, unless a particular limousine company has a special permit for a special occasion to allow you, for example, at a wedding party, to consume alcohol, I would tell you not to do that.

Practically speaking, would most police officers charge under this situation? Probably not. But certainly you’ve got to be very careful in this regard. But it’s a very unknown fact in Ontario, many people assume because there’s a partition, you’ve got the limo, you’ve got the driver, and there’s glasses set up, you’re clinking champagne and enjoying yourself, but, but let’s face it, I mean, most police officers, most are going to look the other way, because they know this is safe. You’ve got a driver, who’s sober and whatnot, but you may run into a situation. What if there’s an accident, though, for example, the police arrive and everyone’s drinking, there could be an investigation, then you could wind up charged. So as a lawyer, I have to tell you, not to do that. If you’re booking a limo, there are special occasion permits. Not many companies have this in Ontario, but you could look into that. You need to look into the policy of each limo,  ask if they say they have a permit for this you should look at it, examine it and make sure it’s valid. You can even heck with the Liquor License people in Ontario to make sure of that. So there you have it. It’s a common misconception that everyone’s allowed to drink in the back of the limo. I know everyone does it. I mean we look ourselves in the eye over the years I’m sure we’ve all been in a wedding party, maybe had a little nip of champagne in the back of the limo, but it’s not necessarily legal unless the company has a special occasion permit, which is rarely granted action, Ontario. Thank you for watching.