The statute
The state will describe what happened to you in the language of a statute. I will describe it in the language of a person.
-
Criminal Code
s. 320.14 Impaired driving. A roadside test, a tow truck, and the fear that this follows you into every job application for the rest of your life. -
Criminal Code
ss. 265–268 Assault, including domestic matters. Usually the worst night of an otherwise ordinary life. Often there is far more to it than the report says. -
Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act Drug offences. Possession, trafficking, production. How the search was conducted usually matters more than what was found. -
Criminal Code
ss. 322, 380 Theft, fraud and property. Red Deer has the highest rate of motor vehicle theft in Canada.Statistics Canada, police-reported crime, 2024 Being charged and having done it are not the same thing. -
Traffic Safety Act
& other statutes Regulatory and quasi-criminal charges. The ones people assume they have to simply accept. They do not. -
Court of
King’s Bench The most serious matters. Indictable offences tried before a judge, or a judge and jury, in Red Deer.
Not sure which of these you are facing? That is precisely what the first phone call is for.
$150 review fee,
non-refundable
“Financial hardship… is not a ground for cancellation” — alberta.ca, SafeRoads
After a roadside stop
In 2020 Alberta stopped charging most first-time impaired drivers criminally. That did not make it smaller. It made it faster.
You were handed a Notice of Administrative Penalty at the roadside instead of a summons. There is no courtroom, no judge, and no year to think it over. There is a seven-day window to ask for a review, a non-refundable fee, and a decision that arrives inside a month.
Most people miss the window because nobody told them it was closing. If your seven days have started, do not wait for the weekend to end.
403 · 391 · 2457“Have Criminal Code,
Will Travel!”
The circuit
There is no lawyer in Edmonton who will drive to Coronation for you. I have been going for forty years.
- Red DeerCourt of King’s Bench & Court of Justice
- StettlerCourt of Justice
- Rocky Mountain HouseCourt of Justice
- RimbeyCourt of Justice
- PonokaCourt of Justice
- DidsburyCourt of Justice
- CoronationCourt of Justice
- DrumhellerCourt of Justice
- WetaskiwinCourt of Justice
I do not really like going to Calgary or Edmonton. From time to time, I have been persuaded to do so.
Lafleche,
Saskatchewan
- 1976
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Regina
- 1979
- Law, University of Saskatchewan
- 1982
- Called to the Bar — Stettler, Alberta
- 1990s
- Red Deer, and criminal defence ever since
Who you would be hiring
A farm kid from Saskatchewan who has spent his whole working life on one side of the room.
Born and raised on the family farm near Lafleche. Bachelor of Arts, University of Regina, 1976. Law, University of Saskatchewan, 1979. A general small-town practice in Stettler beginning in 1982 — real estate, wills, surface rights, and criminal law — then Red Deer in the early nineties, and criminal defence ever since.
Acting as defence counsel has allowed me to be a bit of a thorn in the side of “the establishment”, which has always appealed to me. I have never acted as a prosecutor and never will.
Kevin Sproule
The practice is small by design. You will not be handed down to an associate, because there isn’t one. When not in court, I can usually be found in a field, chasing a little white ball with a stick.
Counsel for
the Defence
The first call costs nothing, and I will tell you straight whether you need me.
If I am in court — and on a weekday I usually am, somewhere between here and Coronation — leave your name and what you have been charged with. You will hear back from me, not from a service.