As a Motoring Solicitor at Mansfield Magistrates Court I see a lot of speeding cases. All of the counties speeding matters are dealt with at Mansfield Magistrates Court.

The courts treat these as minor cases but speeding cases can be very serious and have a devastating effect on the client if they are banned.

The week I had a speeding case at Mansfield Magistrates Court, the client had been caught driving at 78 mph in a 40 limit. She was unable to offer an explanation but it was very out of character for her.

My job is to find the best mitigation where often the clients do not think that one exists. It is important to know what the court considers good mitigation and more importantly what they do not consider good mitigation.

Without going into details this case had an unusual element that the client did not think was important but turned out to be the thing that made the big difference.

I had advised the client that I would try and persuade the court to keep any ban to a minimum. The guidelines suggested that the ban should be at least 2 months. She would have been delighted with a 14 day ban.

After addressing the court I don’t know who was more shocked me or the client to hear them impose 6 points and no ban!

The money that the client has saved from increased insurance premiums if she had been banned has more than paid for our fees!

It highlights the need to have expert representation. It is easy to say the wrong thing in court and make matters worse. We are expert motoring solicitors appearing regularly at Mansfield Magistrates. Your licence is too important to leave to a local legal aid lawyer who does a little bit of motoring law on the side in between his shoplifters and druggies.

If you want your own expert motoring solicitor on your side call us on 01623 397200 and check our page to see why we are different.

Foreign Drivers in UK Evade Speeding Fines

A recent Freedom of Information request from the Institute of Advanced Motorists to the police about the number of foreign motorists on UK roads escaping speeding fines has revealed a shocking amount of offences that are not pursued by the police, due to the fact that the foreign number plates are not registered with the DVLA, which means that it would require significant, and evidently unmanageable, amounts of effort for the police to attempt to track down the offending vehicles.

The information, published by the IAM, shows that more than 23,000 foreign drivers have escaped speeding fines since January 2013, which resulted in £2.3 million unpaid fines.

Director of policy and research at the IAM, Neil Greig, has already called for action in response to the latest figures:

“The high numbers of oversees speeders on our roads show how important it is that the UK joins up with the rest of Europe to harmonize motoring offences and give the police extra powers to pursue dangerous drivers.

“Progress on this issue has been very slow and in the meantime thousands of drivers are avoiding fines and bans simply because their cars cannot be easily traced.”

This table shows the highest speed at which drivers drove in particular areas, and the number of offences in each of these areas.

If you need help in relation to a speeding charge see our specialist Speeding Solicitor page.

 ARE YOU FACING A SPEEDING FINE OR CHARGE?

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We are grateful to Alex Moore, who recently joined us for work experience, for this blog post.

In Derby Magistrates’ Court today, Henry Matthewson was delighted when Magistrates decided to impose 6 penalty points instead of a disqualification for his speeding offence.

Henry had been caught by a speed camera travelling at 75mph in a 40mph zone as he was travelling home from work on his motorcycle.

Although he told us, during his initial telephone call, that he had been hurrying home to tend to his sick wife, we explained to Henry that the court see many serious speeding offences and that they are not interested in excuses. To speed is unlawful.

However, we at Forrest Williams felt that Henry’s driving record (just 3 penalty points over his 10 year driving history, which had now come off his licence) and his exemplary character were factors that our Senior Partner, Steve Williams, could put forward as mitigation.

Henry told us that he spends a lot of time involved in fund raising for local charities. His character reference letters were well written and spoke of Henry in the most glowing terms. In addition, Henry told he had been so mortified by the speeding offence that he had quickly sold his motorcycle and completed a rider awareness course, during which he received one-to-one police officer instruction.

As our Steve Williams, expert speeding solicitor, was leaving court with Henry Matthewson, he noticed that all the defendants still waiting to be called for their hearings were unrepresented. This concerned Steve, as he knew that, by rights, Henry faced an almost certain disqualification had he not been represented today. For Henry such a disqualification would have been life-changing, as he needs his driving licence in order to travel to and from work each day.

For anyone who is seriously considering representing themselves at a forthcoming hearing, Steve would like to make clear that professional mitigation is so much more than simply running through a list of positive character traits, or explaining in great detail what actually happened on the day of the offence. It isn’t easy to get it right.

In fact, the people who often fare worst when representing themselves are those who are confident about their ability to speak in public, ie people who work in sales or teaching. Steve would put it like this: he wouldn’t assume he could deliver a lecture to an informed audience with no prior experience…so why should people assume they can represent themselves in court when they’ve never done it before? And yet they often do. With disastrous results. We hear from court staff all the time that confidence can be perceived as arrogance within a court room setting. Calmness can be perceived as not being all that bothered. And for those people who are nervous and struggle to give a good account of themselves, well, the court is a very busy place and not for the fainthearted.

So, for the reasons above, we at Forrest Williams would strongly advise you to think seriously about appointing a specialist legal company to fully prepare your case and to represent you in court, professionally. Henry Matthewson did this and he got the best possible result. He told us he was delighted with our services – from start to finish.

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