I’ve had a few calls before where the client asks: “is it really worth having legal representation for a motoring offence?”

My answer to that is simple: Yes

Not long ago Tom called into the office for some initial advice. He’d been caught for speeding – over 100mph on the motorway.  He also had 9 points on his licence.

His conversation to me was “I’ve already got 9 points on my licence so the courts are obviously going to ban me, is it worth having someone represent me just to end up getting the same outcome?”

The speed Tom was charged with meant he would either face a short disqualification or a further 4-6 points on his licence which would make him fall to be disqualified for 6 months under the “totting up” procedure should he not be able to conduct a successful Exceptional Hardship application.

He was desperate for the short disqualification so he could keep his licence and in turn his job. He instructed us to mitigate for the ban rather than the points, but that didn’t stop me from fully preparing an Exceptional Hardship application should the disqualification not be imposed by the Magistrates at his hearing.

I took a full statement outlining his mitigating circumstances and guided him through full case preparation for Exceptional Hardship just in case. Tom was so grateful that I’d been proactive enough to think about what might happen should he not get his favourable outcome in court.

I hand-picked one of our fully experienced motoring offence barristers for the hearing and provided her with the full case details and prepared documents.

The full mitigating statement and supporting documents secured Tom his desired short disqualification from the Magistrates. He was delighted with the effort both myself and his barrister had put into his case. His feedback was:

Hi Kirsty, I just wanted to write a quick note of thanks regarding your help towards my case. Whilst I did receive a ban I feel this was the best result under the circumstances and my barrister read the magistrates well as to what they were going to dish out as a punishment and she felt that trying for an EH claim would have not gone our way so we went for the lesser of two evils. I hope (in a nice way) that I don’t need your services again in the future but if anyone else comes into similar circumstances I will certainly point them in your direction.

At Forrest Williams we always go above and beyond for our motoring offence clients. It was obvious to Tom that instructing us to represent him for his speeding matter was “worth it”. We would do the same for any one of our clients.

If you have a motoring offence you’d like representation for, please do not hesitate to contact the team on 01623 397200.

Billy came to us facing a charge of speeding at 118mph in a 70mph. For most people a simple speeding offence is something they get annoyed about, but ultimately apart from their insurance premium increasing, they can carry on with their normal lives.

This was not the case for Billy.

For Billy it could potentially make him lose his insurance, lose his business, make him move house, and have drastic consequences for his disabled father.

Billy had a clean licence. He was a careful and competent driver until one day where he was rushed off his feet; he had to make a run in the morning to pick up parts for his business, and then he had a medical appointment in the afternoon.

Billy co-owned a garage when the offence happened. His business partner didn’t take an active role in the garage and so everything was ultimately left down to Billy.

Billy was the only person in the garage who had trade insurance to drive customer’s vehicles, so he was responsible for a lot of the day to day work.

He had managed to pick up the parts in the morning, but it meant him running late for his medical appointment. Billy was distracted by this; and was caught speeding at 118mph in a 70mph.

Billy contacted Forrest Williams as soon as he received his Notice of Intended Prosecution for this offence. He was so worried.

We explained to him that his speed was actually  so fast it was off the Magistrates Sentencing Guidelines. The Court was going to take this offence very seriously.

For Billy’s speed of 118mph in a 70mph, he was facing a disqualification upwards of 8 weeks.

This news devastated Billy. If he was disqualified for any amount of time then his Insurance Company would no longer insure him, meaning that no-one could drive the customer’s cars and ultimately forcing the company to close because it just would not be able to function.

We started preparing Billy’s case as soon as we were instructed. We need to make sure that Billy had the best chance of being able to keep his licence.

We had countless phone calls with Billy discussing his business, how his garage employed 4 employees who would all become unemployed if he lost his licence. His case was fully prepared on the business side of things.

But we wanted more.

We dove deeper into Billy’s personal life to try and gather different aspects to why he needed to keep his licence.

His father had recently become disabled. He needed help climbing the stairs, getting dressed, just doing the day to day stuff.

Billy moved in with his Mother and Father to help care for his Dad. His Mum tried but she was too weak to physically support him.

Not only that, his Dad relied on Billy to drive him to weekly hospital appointments.  Nobody else could do this. If Billy lost his licence then his Dad would have to get Taxis.

We spoke in depth with Billy about the support he provided. We obtained medical records to show to the court as evidence, and most importantly we obtained a letter from his Dad to show how much he relied on his son.

The day of the hearing came.

We had done everything we had this end to prepare the strongest possible case for Billy, but now we had to hand over to one of our Specialist Motoring Barristers to present the case on Billy’s behalf.

His barrister had been fully briefed on Billy’s case and knew it inside out.  She was armed with all of our prep and now needed to persuade the Magistrates to sentence Billy by way of penalty points rather than a disqualification.

Four hours later I received a call from the barrister. It was successful. Billy had avoided a disqualification and been sentenced to 6 points and a fine.

He was over the moon.

He kept his licence despite admitting driving at 118mph in a 70mph. His business was safe. He could still care for his father.

He could effectively carry on with his life, and could put the past few months behind him. 

If you are facing a motoring charge, call our expert team on 01623 397200.