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Kable1
Hi guys,

Im after some advice. last month I got stopped for speeding 44 in a 30 zone.
it was 10 o'clock at night and there wasnt any other traffic on the road.

The police car was hidden away and the police officer with the gun was also hidden until they step out in the road to stop me.

I currently have 9 points on my liecense

6 points for an IN10 (received in sept 07)
and 3 points last year for red light

I have had the summons come through and it has given me the options of plead guillty by post/in person or not guilty.

Would it be better to goto court rather than by post?

Am I right in thinking that my 6 points will expire (for the totting up) in sept this year?

Is it very likely that I will get a ban? and roughly how long for do you think?

Thanks in advance
peterguk
Points for totting up purposes are taken from dates of offences to prevent offenders delaying proceedings to gain an advantage.

What's the date of your 2007 offence and your recent offence?
Fredd
QUOTE (peterguk @ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 - 14:26) *
What's the date of your 2007 offence and your recent offence?


QUOTE (Kable1 @ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 - 14:20) *
6 points for an IN10 (received in sept 07)
and 3 points last year for red light
Kable1
As this is my 1st speeding offense would be help towards my case and also in the statement from the officer it says that I wasnt offensive in anyway and was polite etc....

Just trying to get as much helpful info as possible
jobo
if you in10 is less than 3 years from offence ?

then you will be called to court when they catch on to how many points you have

being polite to the officer wont help you any, you need to put together an undue hardship argument, focusing on the hardship a ban will cause to others, spouse, children mother voluntary work you do

a well put together case should( may) get them to give you one last chance and a big fine instead of a ban
Kable1
QUOTE (jobo @ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 - 14:48) *
you need to put together an undue hardship argument, focusing on the hardship a ban will cause to others, spouse, children mother voluntary work you do

a well put together case should( may) get them to give you one last chance and a big fine instead of a ban


Thanks, a ban would cause hardship on others, my mother had her hip replaced snf finds it hard to drive at times, my misses lives in wiltshire and i live in dorset and from now til october I do photography at weekends for car magazines at car shows so being able to drive is a key element
southpaw82
You could of course ask for a short ban (7 to 14 days) in lieu of points for this offence... you'd be on 9 points still until September but it'd save you from a six month ban now. I'm not sure the court would be minded to help you out in that way though.
Durzel
I suspect the only meritous point in what you've just said is your mother requiring (?) you to drive her around, everything else - girlfriend access trouble, potential to lose your job is ultimately things that inconvenience you which is fully intended and expected from a driving ban I'm afraid.
Kable1
QUOTE (Durzel @ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 - 15:27) *
I suspect the only meritous point in what you've just said is your mother requiring (?) you to drive her around, everything else - girlfriend access trouble, potential to lose your job is ultimately things that inconvenience you which is fully intended and expected from a driving ban I'm afraid.


yep I drive her around and do the school run etc...

would you say my next step would be to goto a solicitor?
LucyBC
You are looking at three points which means the DVLA will clock your existing points and automatically summons you with a view to banning you for reaching 12 points under the totting up procedure. The presumption is to ban you so you need to persuade the court to allow you to continue to drive by arguing that them failing to do so will cause "exceptional hardship".

Exceptional Hardship is only loosely defined but the first thing to remember is it is a mitigation and not a defence and secondly you will fare much better if, as outlined above, you show how the hardship will be inflicted on others who are wholly innocent of the offence.

These could be members of your family or they could be work-related. However your losing your job is not usually enough to succeed as an exceptional hardship argument. But you could legitimately argue that losing your job would cause economic hardship for others in your family. This may well seem like dancing on the head of a pin but therein lies the subtlety of successfully arguing exceptional hardship.

You ask whether you need a lawyer to make your case. Well court statistics show that just over 40% of defendants succeed in making an exceptional hardship case when they represent themselves whereas no decent motor prosecution lawyer should succeed in less than 70% of cases and a good one should be around the 84% success mark.

The problem is that as a mitigation even if you succeed in persuading the courts to permit you to continue to drive you will have been found guilty and hence are not entitled to recover your legal costs for your defence under a defendant's costs order as you would were you to be found not guilty.

Someone to represent you in court is one option - another is to have a professionally prepared mitigation written for you by a legal firm which will hopefully persuade the court to treat you leniently in response to the exceptional hardship argument and permit you to continue to drive.
jobo
lucy have you got a copy of the stats you quote
LucyBC
I can get the stats for court-made arguments. The lawyer-presented is for any solicitor conducting an Exceptional Hardship in a UK court and will include non-specialists.

The 84% figure applies for minimum Exceptional Hardship success rate quoted by the main specialist nationally-operating motor offence defence firms. One or two seem to achieve considerably better than this.
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