12 Points Totting Up Archives - Page 9 of 11 - Forrest Williams Archive - Forrest Williams - page 9 12 Points Totting Up Archives - Page 9 of 11 - Forrest Williams

Freephone: 0800 1933 999
Mobile Freephone: 01623 397 200

Chat Online

Motoring Advice Blog

Archive for the ‘12 Points Totting Up’ Category

Does Totting Up Work? Our Solicitor Gives His View.

We are often asked to give our views on motoring stories, this story caught the eye of the press yesterday and we were invited onto a morning chat show on BBC Radio Wales to discuss totting up.

 

The issue here is that the law says that you should be banned from driving for a minimum of 6 months when you reach 12 points, this is the totting procedure.

 

We act for a lot of people who fall to be disqualified under the totting up provisions. If we can show that you would suffer exceptional hardship then the court will let you keep your licence.

 

We have a fantastic track record for these exceptional hardship applications and have only ever lost 2 cases (they still hurt even now!).

 

The press have got behind this story and have been questioning whether it is right that someone with 42 points on their licence should still be driving. We were asked this question and our response was ‘It depends’.

 

Lets be clear, if someone has 42 points because he or she is constantly speeding then they should be banned but most cases are not like that.

 

We have acted for people on exceptional hardship applications when they have faced 42 points. The scenario here was that he was as lorry driver who left his job. Someone else drove the lorry he used to drive and drove it badly by the looks of it because the driver racked up 7 speeding tickets in a week. The company received the notices of intended prosecution and indicated that our client was driving. He denied it but having since left the company they were not helping. They were a foreign based company and we could not get any co operation from them.

 

He was unable to name the driver and did not respond to the requests. He then faced 7 charges of failing to disclose the drivers details (just like the woman in the story above). They would have totaled 42 points but we persuaded the CPS to drop the charges. The court refunded his costs and even awarded him money to cover his travel from Scotland, hotel expenses and an allowance for meals whilst he was here! Now that’s what I call a good result!! Had we not been able to do this he would have argued that he would suffer exceptional hardship because he would lose his job. We have no doubt we would have won and he would then have been one of the drivers demonised for driving with 42 points.

 

The totting up provisions can produce very harsh results. The vast majority of people who get to 12 points have not been exceeding the speed limit by a high margin. The public perception of people driving around like maniacs and reaching 12 points is wrong.If someone exceeds the speed limit by a high amount then they are banned and do not get points so totting up does not become an issue.

 

It is very easy to criticise drivers getting 12 points if all you do is drive to and from work and pop to the supermarket once a week. A lot of drivers who fall foul of totting up drive considerable distances for work, up to 50,000 miles a year often in areas that they are not familiar with. They may make mistakes about the speed limit and get caught doing 36 in a 30 thinking it was a 40 for example. The consequences of being banned for 6 months can be devastating for a family, they could lose their job, their house and all that follows. It is right that the court allows them a further chance if they think that the circumstances merit it.

 

It is ironic that if someone is caught breaking into someones house or beating someone up then they may be ordered to do community service. The probation service are obliged to take into account someones job when setting the times they have to perform community service so that the job is not risked. Get caught speeding a few times and the very punishment leads to a loss of job. Have we really got our priorities right?

How Easy It Is To Reach 18 Penalty Points On Your Licence

This blog post is inspired by a discussion on the Forrest Williams Facebook page.

The media does a disservice to our typical clients, who all require our services because of motoring law problems such as speeding, driving without insurance, failing to disclose the driver’s details, careless driving and other such motoring offences.

While the media might portray anyone who faces a motoring matter as being a ‘reckless driver’, the reality is that this is rarely the case.

Take a recent client as an example.

This man was a well-respected surgeon who was relied upon by the hospital where he worked to perform the most complex surgeries at very short notice, on 24 hour call when necessary.

He had a long, clean driving history with no penalty points on his driving licence.

He did, however, live at a house with a similar name to another house nearby.  He had many problems with the post at his house not arriving.

One day, his insurance company wrote to him asking for confirmation of a couple of administrative details.  He did not receive this letter, and his insurance policy was cancelled with no further warning.

Soon after, he was stopped and charged with driving without insurance.  He received 6 penalty points for this.

Following this, his young son was driving his vehicle and was flashed by a speed camera.  Again, the postal system caused problems as the Notice of Intended Prosecution did not reach our client, and he was charged with Failing to Disclose the Driver’s Details.  Another 6 points, and he is at 12 points, where he will be disqualified under the totting up provisions unless he can prove Exceptional Hardship will be suffered by him or others.

Before this matter had been processed, he was travelling to a new hospital where he had been assigned and made the easy mistake of believing that a 30mph road was actually a 40mph road.  Two days in a row, at 3am when leaving his shift at the hospital, he drove on this road at 36mph – two separate 3 penalty point speeding offences.

Suddenly, our client has gone from a perfectly clean licence to reaching 18 penalty points on his driving licence.

These are the stories we hear regularly.

They are, of course, far too dull and uncontroversial for the media to be interested in, and so they continue to feed the idea of ‘reckless drivers’ trying to ‘get off’.

We should all be careful not to judge a story until we know all of the details.

Mobile Phone Driver Avoids Totting Up Ban

Another delighted client kept his licence today following a possible totting up ban after he was caught driving whilst using his mobile phone.

The 3-point offence caused this client to reach 12 points, leading to a summons to attend Leeds Magistrates Court today as he was at risk of a disqualification.

When a driver reaches 12 or more points on their licence, they face a 6 month totting up disqualification.  The only way to avoid this totting up ban is to show that you or others would suffer Exceptional Hardship if banned.

This is a scenario that we see very often at Motoring Lawyers Online, and we pride ourselves on our ability to expertly prepare these cases successfully.

Leeds Magistrates Court today found that this client would suffer Exceptional Hardship if he was to receive a totting up ban and so used their discretion to not impose a disqualification.

The client was, of course, delighted.

If you are facing a totting up situation, contact us on 01623 397200 to see how we can help you.

Forrest Williams TV