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Incorrect Signage On Nottingham’s A453 Leads To Speeding Case Being Discontinued

Posted on: March 25th, 2013 by steve

Forrest Williams are urging anyone caught speeding on Nottingham’s A453 to contact them.

They have recently handled the case of a driver charged with speeding along this road, and after months of negotiations with the prosecution service, have received notice that the case was discontinued due to a technical point of law applying to this area.

If anyone has been convicted of a speeding offence on this stretch of road, they should contact Forrest Williams urgently to see whether their conviction can be overturned.

Petition: How Should 17 Year Olds Be Treated At The Police Station?

Posted on: March 19th, 2013 by steve

Meet Joe.

He was a typical 17 year old boy, who made a foolish decision to drive home after a party. He was stopped by the police and arrested for drink driving. He was taken to the police station, where he was treated as an adult despite his young age. His parents, Nick and Jane Lawton, weren’t rang and informed of this.

Joe was kept overnight in the police cells.

Was he scared?

We can only assume that he was, because he never got the chance to tell his loved ones his side of the story.

Two days after his arrest, Joe took his police charge sheet and shot himself at his family’s farm. As his devastated parents discovered his body, they also discovered this incident.

Nick and Jane Lawton feel sure that if they had been informed of his drink driving incident, they could have supported him and reassured him that they could come through the matter as a family.

While 17 year olds are classed as children for Court proceedings, they are considered adults in the police station, and have to go through the traumatic experience without the support of an adult.

Joe’s parents have started a petition asking the Government to change the law so that 17 year olds are treated as children in the police station, meaning their parents would have to be informed and an appropriate adult present for them.

You can sign the Joe Lawton petition to show your support for this.

This story touched me on two levels.

Professionally, I am very used to representing clients aged 17 who face motoring matters. In my experience, I find them all to be usually responsible, mature kids who have had lapses of judgement or who have made momentary mistakes. And, in my experience, none of them ring me themselves. There is always a supportive – but disappointed – parent or relative handling the matter for them, and the case always has to be handled with an extra sensitivity.

I am always struck during these cases by the fact that, despite bravado, these 17 year olds are still so very, very young. These are cases where I see my job not only as representing the person, but very much about assisting the whole family. They are cases where I choose barristers based not only on advocacy skills but on ability to offer additional TLC.

Professionally, I believe a 17 year old should be treated as a child in the police station.

Personally, I am father to a 20 year old daughter who has recently passed her driving test, and I would still hate to think that she could find herself in a situation where she would be arrested and detained in a police station without my knowledge and support.

I signed the petition, and I hope you do too.

Steve Williams

Does Your Ethnicity Affect Your Access To A Fair Hearing?

Posted on: March 12th, 2013 by steve

Today’s post raises a controversial and hugely important question:

Does your ethnicity affect your access to a fair hearing?

I’ll be honest, it’s a question I hadn’t considered in much detail until recently.

I’m an open-minded person, I’m not racist and I don’t know or associate with people who are racist. Professionally, I represent people of all ethnicities and, in fact, the majority of my clients are not White British. It makes absolutely no difference to me or the rest of my team here at Forrest Williams.

You can perhaps imagine my surprise when, a few weeks ago, I was contacted by a new client who needed my help.

This person had received a letter from the DVLA advising that he had to return his licence within 28 days as he had been convicted of speeding, and 6 points needed to be put on his licence. Furthermore, he had also been fined £700.

Nothing too unusual there; we hear often from people who have been convicted of driving offences in their absence because they have never received the Notice of Intended Prosecution.

What made this case strange was that the Defendant was not our client. They did not share the same name. They did not share the same address. And they did not drive the same car.

Our client had been chosen at random to be convicted of an offence committed by someone else.

Why?

Our client was of Chinese origin with a Chinese name. The Defendant also had a Chinese name, which was slightly similar to the client’s name.

We spoke to the Court about this, and queried how our client had become involved in this.

We explained that his name – Tian Long Cheung* – was completely different from the name of the Defendant – Tao Liang Cheung*.

The Court staff replied; “but they’re similar names, aren’t they?”

As if it was acceptable that our client was having to go through the worry, inconvenience and expense of this situation because his name was unfamiliar to the British legal system.

Fortunately, we finally managed to convince the Court that they should impose the points and fine against the Defendant, rather than a random person with a similar name, but we found the case and, in particular, the Court’s apparent lack of concern about this, very worrying.

Motoring Advice Blog

Incorrect Signage On Nottingham’s A453 Leads To Speeding Case Being Discontinued

Petition: How Should 17 Year Olds Be Treated At The Police Station?

Does Your Ethnicity Affect Your Access To A Fair Hearing?

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