You know the feeling. One minute you’re driving along happily and suddenly it dawns on you that the van parked at the side of the road ahead isn’t just an ordinary van but a police camera van and then you have that sinking feeling when you look at your speedo and you’re doing ten or more MPH over the limit. You probably put your foot on the brake in the hope of passing the van at a legal speed but it’s all too late; the camera has had you in its sights. You may have some experience of speeding fines but any experience is usually too much experience!
Now if your excess speed isn’t too great then, as a first offender, you’ll most likely be in line for an invitation to attend a local speed awareness course and, to be frank, even a few points on your licence and a previous (but not too recent) course does not preclude the possibility of being offered another course. You can always (when responding to the initial letter requiring details of the driver) enclose a short letter to the Central Ticket Office asking very respectfully for consideration of another course. Think about it: if you have a genuine desire to learn from your mistakes then a refresher course could be a good thing and if you don’t ask you may not get. It’s worth it even if you may have to travel a long way to attend the course, depending on the local arrangements where the offence occurred.
But if your speed was just too much for the local speed awareness course guidelines you are likely to be facing the Single Justice Procedure which enables nearly the whole legal process involving a driving offence to be completed online. This may be fine but problems will arise if you already have say 9 or 10 points on your licence. You can start the process via the Single Justice Procedure but it’s highly likely that some way down the line you’re going to be informed that your attendance at a court hearing is going to be required. In such circumstances there’s a good case for asking for a court hearing straightaway via the online process as it may help you focus on what you hope to achieve. What most people I see want to achieve is keep their driving licence because (usually) its loss will be a massive inconvenience.
To keep your licence when you’re perilously close to 12 points is not easy. The loss of your licence will probably cause hardship but will it be exceptional hardship? This is the thing; the problems personal and otherwise need to be much more than merely an inconvenience to you and others but exceptional. Truly you need to ask yourself if your circumstances could be regarded as exceptional. Having to catch two buses to get to work and two buses home again in the evening is unlikely to amount to exceptional hardship on its own; an inconvenience quite possibly but more than that is improbable. On the other hand if your job requires flexibility and time-keeping is critical and, furthermore, it’s a small company and the MD will struggle without your expertise reliably then maybe you have the makings of an exceptional hardship argument – even better if you are needed to run a sick relative to hospital every so often and there’s no one but you who can do that. A court hearing will be the only way and, furthermore, you should prepare yourself for giving evidence under oath. This is where taking legal advice from a lawyer with substantial experience of road traffic offences is generally a very good thing. And the earlier the better!
Michael McGhie, our Road Traffic expert will be pleased to talk with you about your case and discuss the options available to you. If you have any queries please feel free to call us on 01202 877 400 or email michaelmcghie@newnham-jordan.co.uk.
This article is intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. Newnham & Jordan Solicitors cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article or any external articles it may refer or link to.
