The Odds Of Obtaining A Record Suspension (Pardon) For DUI In Canada

Let’s say you’ve got a conviction or two for impaired driving or a DUI, and you asked your lawyer, what are my odds of getting a record suspension, getting a record suspended.  Formerly, these were called pardons. Well, first of all, I’m going to answer that question. It’s an interesting question. I’m going to talk about a couple other offenses, two more serious offenses, but to answer the question in a nutshell, the odds for a DUI, if you stay out of trouble, you pay all your fines and five years has passed, and it was summary conviction from the end of your sentence, that is the date of your driving prohibition, you can then apply to the Parole Board of Canada to get your record suspended. And what does that mean? First of all, it’s set aside. It’s still on a computer somewhere, but it’s not available for public viewing. In other words, once you have your record suspension, if you’re applying for a job and they do a criminal record check, it’s not going to show up. So that’s good news for travel for all sorts of reasons. It’s important to get that if you can. And by the way, the US doesn’t necessarily recognize pardons at the border, but in Canada, it’s important to get that.  For travel for other countries, should not be a problem if you get a record suspension. So, let’s, let’s break that down then.  As I said, if you’ve stayed out of trouble and you’ve just got a first time DUI conviction, maybe two, even three, you may very well be able to get it. Now, if the crown had elected by indictment on any of those DUIs, you have to wait 10 years to apply to the Parole Board of Canada, and there’s a very high success rate for DUIs, very fortunate, I’m told, when you look up statistics, that well over 90% of DUIs get, if not higher. I mean, there’s some statistics and say, 95 or 97% get set aside. Now it’s a different case for other charges. I mean, let’s take some breakdowns in an example, a simple assault or two conviction, same thing, you should be able to get a pardon if you stayed out of trouble, paid all your fines, stay out of trouble for years, and go through the application and get some reference letters and be a person of good character. Shouldn’t be a problem. It gets much more problematic with more serious offenses, for example, murder, for example, you’ll never like anything where you’re faced a life sentence, you’re never going to get it or an indeterminate sentence, you’re never going to get it. For sexual assaults, if you have a sexual assault conviction against an adult complainant that is 18 or over, typically, you’re not going to get that. There’s rare exceptions to that. Many years would have had to pass. You’d be really exceptional circumstances. So the odds are inordinately low. It almost becomes impossible for children, by the way, and rightfully so, if you’ve been convicted on of a sexual assault on a child, that’s pretty much a no go. Typically, no. There’s a very narrow exception for that, but I don’t want to say it’s often, often granted. So that’s what you’re kind of looking at. And it’s important to know that if you do get a record suspension, again, formerly called a pardon, and you get convicted of a new offense, it revokes the past pardon. So they all come to fruition. So, for example, if you have two past DUIs, five and 10 years ago and they get or six or 10 years ago and they get record suspended, you commit a third, well, guess what? Your pardons, revoked and the crown, is going to  ask for a lengthy jail term, because on a third DUI conviction, you go to jail for at least 120, or more days. So it’s important, you know, for people to do this, to get record suspension because, you know, for work reasons, for travel reasons. You know, just not having a criminal record is a good thing, and certainly I would advise people to do that if you have a much more serious crime, though, I think I would get legal advice before you even bother. You might be wasting your money in most circumstances where you had, for example, a sexual assault, and especially a sexual assault involving children. So, there you have it. That’s the short and long answer to or I should say, what are the odds of getting a pardon or a record suspension for a DUI. They’re very good. First time offender, pretty much automatically, really a second or third offender as well. You could probably get it before the Parole Board of Canada. Thank you for watching our video.