Drink Driving Lawyers Sydney

Drink Driving Lawyers: What You Need to Know

A drink driving charge arrives suddenly, and its consequences reach much further than the fine. Your licence, your employment, your insurance and, for many charges, a criminal record are all at stake. How the matter is handled from the outset makes a substantial difference to where it lands.

Korn Tlais Defence Lawyers act for people charged with the full range of drink and drug driving offences across Sydney and New South Wales. We appear in every Local Court in the state, and a lawyer answers our phone at any hour.

Charges We Defend

We act in all prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA) and related driving matters, including:

• Low, mid and high range PCA

  Each range carries different penalties, disqualification periods and interlock consequences. The range alleged is not always the range that should stand, and the reading itself can sometimes be challenged.

• Driving under the influence (DUI)

  A distinct charge often based on police observations rather than a breath analysis, which raises its own evidentiary questions.

• Drug driving

  Both driving with an illicit substance present and driving under the influence of a drug, each with different defences available.

• Refusing or failing a breath test or analysis

  Serious charges treated comparably to high range PCA, where the lawfulness of the police direction is often central.

• Novice and special range PCA

  For learner, provisional and other special category licence holders, where even a low reading has significant licence consequences.

What Is Actually at Stake

Penalties escalate sharply with the alleged range and with any prior record: fines, licence disqualification, mandatory alcohol interlock orders and, for higher ranges and repeat offences, imprisonment is available to the court. An immediate licence suspension often applies from the moment of the charge.

In appropriate cases, the court can find a charge proved yet dismiss it without conviction under section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act, or impose a conditional release order without conviction, preserving both your record and your licence. Whether that outcome is realistically open depends on the range, the circumstances and the quality of preparation, and no honest lawyer will promise it in advance. Preparing the strongest possible case for it is precisely the work we do.

How We Approach a Drink Driving Matter

We begin where the prosecution case is most vulnerable: the lawfulness of the stop, the conduct and timing of the breath test and analysis, the accuracy of the reading, and whether the correct procedures were followed at every step. Where a challenge is available, we identify it early.

Where a plea of guilty is the right course, preparation becomes everything: character material, traffic offender programs, interlock considerations and properly presented submissions consistently produce materially better outcomes than an unprepared appearance. We prepare every sentence as though the result matters as much to us as it does to you, because it does.

Common Questions