Motoring Offences

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 the 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 a police officer suspects that you are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs you may be stopped and asked to provide a specimen of breath, urine or blood for analysis. 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 be 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.

If you have been accused of a motoring offence 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:

• Where a person’s drinks were laced and they were not aware that they were over the limit
• The accused drove a short distance and there was no risk of coming into contact with other road users
• The person drove in an emergency situation

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.

For example trials, special reasons defences or exceptional hardship arguments we would charge £1500-2500 + VAT

This fee will include:

• Initial meeting with your solicitor to provide instructions
• Consideration of disclosure and other evidence by the solicitor and providing advice on it and advising you as to plea
• Arranging to take witness statements or identifying and instructing an expert witness (this will have an additional cost at the hourly rate-typically will take one hour and a half per witness)
• Explaining the court procedure to you and explaining the court’s sentencing options
• Conducting any further preparatory work, obtaining further instructions from you as the case progresses and answering any follow up queries you may have
• Attending at court and meeting with you before representing you during the hearing
• Discussing the outcome with you and advising on an appeal

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:

• A trial involving a large number of witnesses in the prosecution case or to support your case
• A trial which is expected to last longer than half a day
• Cases involving the instruction of expert witnesses such as accident investigators or medical experts
• Cases requiring site visits
• A complex or novel area of law

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.