Reading this article may help you save your license!
Many people believe that there are numerous loopholes to defending traffic law cases in the UK Courts. Most of this false belief was produced by Mr Loophole himself.
The truth of the matter is that there are no loopholes in defending traffic law cases. There is only being knowledgeable as how to get the best result possible for your client.
If a person commits a traffic law offence and the Police do their job correctly, exercising all the safe guards in law which ensure that the Prosecution is completed correctly, then you are left with little option other than to plead guilty.
Young Driver Provisions
There are of course certain pieces of legislation which when applied correctly result in different outcomes for the client.
A good example is the Young Driver Provisions. A young driver who achieves 6 or more penalty points within the first two years of driving, will have their licence revoked by the DVLA. The offence of no insurance carries a 6 penalty points endorsement on your licence or a discretionary disqualification.
Many young people who have made a mistake with their insurance will go into Court, plead guilty, receive six penalty points and then subsequently have a letter arrive from the DVLA revoking their licence and returning them to provisional status.
If that young person goes into Court and is able to persuade the Magistrates that they should be disqualified from driving for potentially a number of days, then their licence will be returned to them without having to be revoked or returning to provisional status as they have been disqualified rather than receiving six penalty points.
This is an example of one of the anomalies in the British Traffic Legislation.
Driving without insurance
Another good example relating to insurance, is when someone drives without insurance but has been misled to believe that they are insured.
If a person is misled or a third party causes them to drive unknowingly without insurance then you can present a case to the Court by way of a special reason argument (mini trial) to convince the Court that due to that special circumstance they should not have their licence endorsed. Unusually, if it is an employer who has misled the individual that they are insured to drive, for instance a company car, then the individual would plead not guilty in Court rather than argue a special reason.
Unusually this is because being misled by your employer to believe that you are insured is a statutory defence.
Penalty points
One of the most regular reasons that a person gets disqualified from driving is because they have become a “totter”. A totter is someone who achieves 12 penalty points within 3 years.
As a result of that, a person will go before the Magistrates Court and the Magistrates are obliged to disqualify them for 6 months or more. Once that disqualification is completed they return to zero points.
Losing your driving licence
Losing your driving licence can have severe effects. The Magistrates, who are considering your case are aware that losing your driving licence could have severe ramifications for your job, family, friends and employers.
People have asked me many a time whether I can save their driving licence from a totting disqualification. They have asked the question “is there a loophole to get round this”. The answer is that there is no loophole but there is the possibility of presenting an exceptional hardship case to the Magistrates to prevent a person from being disqualified for six months.
When your solicitor is saving your driving licence from a totting disqualification, there isn’t a loophole but there is the possibility of presenting an exceptional hardship case to the Magistrates to prevent a person from being disqualified for six months.
It is my genuine belief that Magistrates do not want to disqualify people for six months because they understand that for any driver losing their licence for six months is going to have severe ramifications on their life.
The Magistrates are there to operate the law and have little choice, “unless you persuade them or give them reason to exercise a discretion”.
Losing your licence will always generally cause someone hardship. The law however says that a person who can show to the Court that they or another, would suffer exceptional hardship, does not have to be disqualified when they reach 12 or more points.
As stated, there is no loophole to this, it is just presenting a case to the Magistrates which allow them to exercise their discretion by showing that this individual, or others, would suffer exceptional hardship.
Presenting a case
The way to successfully do this is to provide the Magistrates with information which confirms the pleas and mitigation that are being put forward.
Examples of this could be a letter from the employer to show that the company the individual works for would suffer exceptional hardship if they lost the services of their employee because they lost their ability to drive.
It is a lot more powerful when the company write directly to the Magistrates explaining the situation rather than an individual who just stands there and tells the Court.
Likewise, the Magistrates always take into account the effects of a disqualification on others, more than the individual.
It may well be that an individual picks up other people and takes them to work or helps other people with childcare. These are examples of things that when evidenced before the Magistrates, usually in writing, can assist the Magistrates in finding that exceptional hardship would be caused to others.
In conclusion, there are always arguments that can be put before the Court to show that exceptional hardship would be used if a licence is lost, the secret however is to provide the Magistrates with the documentary evidence to allow them to make the decision that you want.
Plea Bargain
The final “loophole” that I can discuss today is a plea bargain. On many occasions I will walk into a Court and agree with the Prosecutor that the charges that are written on paper are not the charges that, as defence, we feel are appropriate or are necessary to deal with the offence.
It is often the case that somebody is charged with driving without due care, failing to stop and failing to report an accident. On numerous occasions, I have been able to persuade the Magistrates that failing to stop offences and failing to report offences should be discontinued. These offences can be more serious than careless driving.
The proposition to the Prosecution is relatively straight forward. The person has committed a driving without due care offence and intends to plead guilty. The reason why they are not guilty of the fail to stop and the fail to report is because they have not actually realised that they have had an accident. This could be a minor bump in a car park.
When issues like this are presented to the Prosecution in a forcefully and formidable way, the Prosecution will usually agree to proceed with the single offence discontinuing the other two matters. This results in a person having to let endorsements on their licence and indeed less financial penalties and penalty points. The way in which we at Hunt and Coombs conduct any traffic case is to firstly review the charges and evidence to ensure that an individual is being prosecuted correctly for the offences that they face.
This includes checking all the details and dates which can lead to an early discontinuance in the case. If the case continues then your solicitor will advise you on how the matter should proceed giving you all the information that you need to ensure that your best case can be presented in Court.
If the matter is going to proceed to a trial your solicitor will of course assist in preparing the trial, instructing any experts who are needed or taking statements from any witnesses that are required.
Your solicitor would then seek to present the case to the Court in order to achieve the best result possible. All of this work is undertaken with an extensive knowledge of the traffic laws.
How can we help
In conclusion to this article, the above demonstrates that there is no loophole in relation to how to get out of traffic law offences. There is only the exercise of manipulating the law and using the legislation to the best benefit of your client and ensuring that the best preparation allows the Courts to administer the correct and least penalty possible for your client.
For further information, please contact Andy Cave in the Crime team on 01733 882 800 or email [email protected].
Andy Cave LLB, Partner
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