News
1 July 2009
Avoiding a driving ban or penalty points
The key to avoiding a driving ban or significant penalties is to take legal advice at the earliest opportunity.
Call us on 01782 205 000 as soon as you receive any notice from the police,
or complete our motoring offences enquiry form, and we will call you.
The court can consider disqualifying a driver in a number of circumstances, usually falling within one of the following categories:
- mandatory disqualification by law
- discretionary disqualification
- “totting up” disqualification – 12 points or more
Mandatory disqualification
The law dictates that for some motoring offences an automatic disqualification must be imposed upon conviction for that offence. An example of this would be ‘drink driving/failing to provide a specimen’.
However, in some circumstances it may still be possible to avoid a disqualification by arguing that ‘special reasons’ exist to persuade the court not to disqualify the driver from driving.
‘Special reasons’ is a principle in law where in certain strict and exceptional circumstances a driver can argue that the reasons for the offence being committed make the imposition of an automatic disqualification or the endorsement of penalty points unjust.
Examples of special reasons in relation to ‘drink driving/failing to provide a specimen’ could be an emergency or necessity. If one of these special reasons is established then the driver would avoid a mandatory disqualification.
The burden in establishing special reasons rests with the defendant, and as such it is imperative that you consult a solicitor at the earliest possible opportunity so that all options can be considered depending on the circumstances of the particular case.
Discretionary disqualification
In some motoring cases, even though the offence is endorsable with penalty points as a starting point, the court can still consider a discretionary disqualification for the offence itself on the basis that its seriousness merits it. A common example of this happening would be speeding where the speed was over 100mph or more than 30mph over the actual limit.
In cases such as these, we have successfully argued that it is more appropriate to impose the maximum amount of penalty points rather than impose a discretionary disqualification. Courts are open to accepting this type of argument when the driver’s personal circumstances and an explanation of how the offence came to be committed are properly presented by experienced solicitors.
Alternatively, it may be advantageous to argue that a short discretionary disqualification is more advantageous to the driver if the imposition of further penalty points would mean that the driver would “tot” by reaching 12 points or more and then incur a disqualification of 6 months or more.
In these circumstances we have successfully argued that a short disqualification for the offence itself is more appropriate rather than imposing penalty points and a minimum 6 month ban under the “totting up” provisions.
“Totting up” disqualification – 12 points or more
When a driver attains 12 penalty points or more in a 3 year period they can be disqualified for a minimum of 6 months or more under the “totting up” provisions.
A driver who finds themselves in these circumstances can still avoid a disqualification if they can successfully establish ‘exceptional hardship’.
‘Exceptional hardship’ is a high hurdle to overcome but, if established, it will keep a driver on the road despite reaching 12 points or more. The hardship has to be beyond inconvenience and even loss of livelihood, and has to be exceptional in the proper sense. The hardship can relate to the impact on others of the loss of the drivers licence.
Please see our Track record of success for examples of how these strategies have worked for our clients.
Call us on 01782 205 000 as soon as you receive any notice from the police,
or complete our motoring offences enquiry form, and we will call you.
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