Our team has over sixty years collective experience in defending clients in all aspects of motoring law.
We have three members of our team and all work is supervised by Teerath Gill, Head of Crime and Motoring Offences.
At Askews Legal LLP we have considerable experience of successfully representing people accused of drink driving related offences. We regularly defend people charged with a whole range of drink driving offences such as driving with excess alcohol, being drunk in charge of a vehicle, failing to provide a specimen, driving whilst unfit and drug driving.
Appearing before the court in relation to any of these offences can have serious consequences and can be a very worrying and stressful time. We can advise you as to whether you may be able to defend the case, have it dropped at court and secure the best possible outcome very often on a fixed fee basis. Get in touch and see how our solicitors can help.
It is an offence to drive a “mechanically propelled vehicle” on any road or place to which the public have access whilst you are over the prescribed limit. If you are convicted of drink driving the court can impose an unlimited fine, up to six months imprisonment and must disqualify you from driving for at least 12 months and at least three years if it is your second offence within a ten year period.
We can advise you as to whether you may be able to successfully defend the case due to the police not following the procedures properly when you were arrested or when the samples were taken. We are experts at identifying errors which can lead to the case being dropped at Court.
In some circumstances it may be possible to avoid being disqualified from driving if there are “special reasons”. This can apply where there is no defence to the charge but the circumstances relating to why the offence was committed are such that the court may consider that a driving ban need not be imposed.
Special reasons can include:
It is difficult to successfully argue that special reasons apply and very often it is necessary to obtain expert evidence to support your case. We have considerable experience in arguing these cases at court.
In circumstances where the police have no evidence that you were driving a vehicle, you may face the offence of being drunk in charge of a vehicle. If you have been charged with this offence you may be able to successfully defend the case by arguing that you would not have driven the vehicle until such time as amount of alcohol in your system was below the legal limit. If you are guilty of this offence the Court will impose either 10 penalty points on your driving record or may disqualify you from driving.
If you refuse to provide a specimen or fail to do so without a reasonable excuse you will be charged with failing to provide a specimen. We can advise you as to whether the police have made any procedural mistakes which may provide you with a defence and whether your circumstances might amount to a reasonable excuse. The court will very often need to see expert medical evidence as to why you were unable to provide a specimen and we can obtain that for you as well as argue your case in court.
It is an offence to drive a vehicle when you have certain levels of illegal drugs in your blood or if you’re unfit to do so because you are on legal or illegal drugs. The police have testing kits to screen for cannabis and cocaine at the roadside. In other cases you will be asked to carry out impairment tests to test whether you are fit to drive. If they think you are unfit or if you fail the roadside screening tests then you will arrested and taken to the police station for a blood or urine test. There are procedures that must be carried out correctly and we can advise you as to whether there are any errors that could lead to a successful defence of the case.
The penalties for drug driving are an unlimited fine, up to six months imprisonment and a minimum 12 month ban. Talk to us to see if this can be avoided.
Our expert motoring solicitors are able to defend you in all types of motoring offences. We know that your driving licence is important to you and that the loss of it can result in the loss of your livelihood and further impact on your family life. We are here to assist you in protecting your licence and get you the best possible outcome in your motoring case. We can help you to avoid ban, obtain the least possible penalty points and seek to persuade prosecutors to withdraw proceedings.
We have considerable experience in dealing with all aspects of motoring law from dangerous driving to speeding. Whether you are facing a drink driving charge or have been caught using your mobile phone whilst driving and are facing points on your licence, our solicitors will use their expertise to advise you every step of the way.
Our solicitors regularly defend clients at the police station and Magistrates’ and Crown Courts facing motoring allegations. We can also help with appeals against disqualification and applications for early reinstatement of your licence.
In some cases we may be able to obtain legal aid for you. Where legal aid is not available we charge reasonable and transparent fees and in many cases can provide you with a fixed fee so that you will not have to worry about legal costs.
Depending on the nature and complexity of your case,the motoring team are able to assist you in the following ways:
Our solicitors charge an hourly rate of £205+ VAT
Depending upon the complexity we are able to offer fixed fees in some cases. For instance:
Guilty plea to drink driving related offence, driving without due care and attention or speeding – £500 plus VAT (local court) or £750 +VAT (court up to 45 mins drive away from Coventry)
It is difficult to estimate how long your case would take at court as it would depend on the court listing for that day however we would anticipate being at court with you for up to half a day.
Other cases (For example trials, special reasons or exceptional hardship arguments)
Simple case £1500-2500 plus VAT
This would include:
Our pricing for medium complexity case are £2500 – £3500 (excluding VAT) and for high complexity cases £3500 to £10000.
Factors that can make a case more complex would include:
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as experts fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. Expert reports are not required in many cases. We will let you know as soon as possible if we consider an expert report is necessary and the fees involved.
