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.

 

Tags: case studies