If you’re the proprietor of a enterprise that holds a license to promote or serve liquor, you might be topic to the Liquor License Act. If you’re deemed to have violated this act ultimately, the Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario (AGCO) could search to cost you with a regulatory offence.
If you’re deemed to have violated the Liquor License Act (LLA), it’s possible you’ll obtain a Discover of Incident from the Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario. That is primarily an informational letter informing you {that a} violation of the Liquor License Act had been reported and is being investigated additional. The notice will inform you that the Deputy Registrar of the Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario is contemplating the incident and can contemplate any info you want to present in your defence.
This can be a good time to contemplate consulting with a lawyer. You need to accomplish that earlier than sending any info to the AGCO. You have no idea if the knowledge you might be sending may very well damage your case and implicate you additional. Clearly that is the very last thing you’ll wish to do; seek the advice of with a lawyer first. (Many legal professionals resembling these at our agency can have this dialog with you at no cost; reap the benefits of this useful resource.)
Together with the incident discover, you’ll seemingly obtain from the Alcohol and Gaming Fee an inspection report. This represents the small print of the allegations made towards your enterprise. It can embody the listed violations of the Liquor License Act which can be alleged in addition to the detailed notes of the inspector. That is primarily the case towards you.
A lawyer educated within the Liquor License Act in skilled in litigation usually might help identifies the weaknesses within the case towards you and defences out there to you.
Upon the completion of its investigation, the Deputy Registrar of the ACGO will problem one of many following selections:
a) Taking no additional motion;
b) Issuing a written warning;
c) Imposing an Order of Financial Penalty;
d) Issuing a Discover of Proposal to connect circumstances to a license;
e) Issuing a Discover of Proposal to droop the license or to revoke the license;
f) Designating the license holder and/or premises for functions of risk-based licensing and imposing circumstances.
Clearly the primary choice is the specified consequence and the selections get progressively worse from there.
For sure, the implications of an alleged violation vary from non-affective to fully ruinous of the operation of your enterprise. The subsequent step after you get the preliminary incident discover could also be a choice of suspension of your liquor license. This is the reason it’s so necessary to proceed with warning and seek the advice of a lawyer.
The License Attraction Tribunal is the executive physique earlier than which one can attraction any of the next: a Discover of Proposal, an Order of Financial Penalty, or a Discover of Proposed Order.
For those who lose this attraction, there could also be a chance to attraction the choice of the tribunal, earlier than the courts.
Don’t wait till a choice has been rendered and you’ll want to attraction that call to seek the advice of with a lawyer.
If you’re alleged to have violated the Liquor License Act, make certain that you are actually pitted towards a workforce of pros who would not have your finest curiosity in thoughts. For instance, the Deputy Registrar’s incident discover invitations you to offer them with info with respect to the alleged incident. Most individuals are accustomed to the “proper to stay silent” within the prison context; this proper exists within the Liquor License Violation context as properly. The Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario would love so that you can implicate your self additional by proving info to them that you could be assume helps your case however actually helps the AGCO take away your license to serve alcohol.
Because it says proper within the incident discover: “Please notice that any info, supplies and feedback that you just present could also be used as proof towards you in any listening to of a proposal to droop, revoke or impose circumstances or of an attraction of a financial penalty. Subsequently it’s possible you’ll wish to seek the advice of along with your lawyer or paralegal earlier than responding to this letter.”
You’ve got the fitting to have a lawyer. If your enterprise depends in your skill to serve alcohol, allegations of a violation are a really critical risk to your livelihood. This can be a authorized matter and it will be unnecessarily reckless to attempt to navigate the method with out the assistance of a authorized skilled.
Name us at 416-999-8389 or e-mail me at jordan@robichaudlaw.ca for a free session
Jordan Gold Barrister and Solicitor ROBICHAUD’S