Motoring Offences

In fact, most people face the police or the Courts at some point in their life accused of a driving offence.

There is nothing special about motoring offences, and those big national firms who promise you the earth in return for large amounts of money are working with the same legislation as we do.  There is nothing secret or clever about dealing with motoring offences. We are honest when advising you on your chances of keeping your licence and won’t take thousands of pounds from you and make promises we cannot keep.

Most of the time you end up before the Court because the offences are serious enough for the court to consider disqualifying you, or because you have totted up enough points to face a mandatory disqualification. Sometimes, you can argue there are special reasons for not being disqualified. If the Court agrees, they can step back from the mandatory period of disqualification or not disqualify you at all.

Or it may be you don’t accept you are guilty of the offence at all. We can help you defend an offence you deny committing in a sensible and logical way.

We believe in ensuring quality in our services and aim to ensure that the funding of your case is cost-efficient and entirely transparent. We thrive in providing you with dedication to your case but we understand that the costs of your case will be important to you and to those involved in your case. It is important that you are fully aware of how much you will need to pay. We will always agree costs in advance of any particular case once we have had an opportunity to assess the issues and the level of work and assistance required. We will take time to agree the costs with you by understanding you, your case and the work involved. However, in accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Transparency Rules and in order to provide a good estimate of the sort of level of fee you will pay (whether that be an agreed fee or a range of the costs involved in a typical case) if you were to instruct us, we have set out on our website a breakdown of our standard charges for this type of work. There may be other costs that you would need to pay over and above our fees and we aim to provide information of those in addition. Our aim is to enable you to have a good understanding of what it may cost you overall.

Set out below is service and cost information for advice and representation at the Magistrates Court in relation to summary only road traffic offences deal with at a single hearing.

You may also have the benefit of other sources of funding such as legal expenses insurance or funding through a trade union or other representative. Please do not hesitate to contact us to explore your options.

Fixed Fee Work

Legal aid is not usually available for motoring offences.

Set out here are our indicative prices for fixed fee work:

If your matter could lead to a more complex trial or a particularly tricky exceptional hardship argument we can give you a quote dependent on all the circumstances.

Disbursements (so, for instance, expert reports) are not included in our fixed fees.

VAT @ 20% has to be added to our fees and some disbursements.

Services included in the fee quoted – Guilty plea, one hearing

• attending you to take instructions either at the office or court, or via video link call
• considering the evidence
• providing advice in relation to plea and likely sentence
• where we cannot anticipate the likely sentence, advice on the options available to the court in relation to sentencing
• where appropriate, advice on whether an exceptional hardship, or special reasons argument should be made
• where appropriate, making Written Representations to the Prosecution
• full preparation for the Hearing, including preparing your full mitigation
• attendance and representation at a single hearing at the Magistrates’ Court.

For hearings in areas in close proximity to our offices, we would generally attend the hearing ourselves but for cases in courts further away we may use counsel. Counsel’s fees are included in the quoted fee above.

Services not included in the fees quoted for one hearing

On most occasions where you are entering a guilty plea, the matter will be dealt with at a single hearing. If you plead not guilty or there are any circumstances which mean that the matter is adjourned, set down for a longer hearing or trial, this will usually require assistance at hourly rates (see below). In particular, the fixed fee quoted does not cover the following services:

• any trial and preparation for trial
• instruction of any expert witnesses
• taking statements from any witnesses
• advice and assistance in relation to a special reasons hearing
• advice and assistance in relation to an exceptional hardship hearing
• any additional hearings
• If you are unhappy with the outcome, the cost of challenging a decision or consideration of your options.

Any services which are not included in our fixed fee will be charged at our hourly rate which ranges from £200 ((plus VAT @ 20% = £40) (total £240) to £270 ((plus VAT @ 20% = £52) (total £322)) per hour and we will discuss this with you should it become necessary and provide a bespoke quote depending on your circumstances.

Expenses and Disbursements not included in the fee quoted

Expenses and disbursements could include:

• interpreters fees at £50 plus VAT @ 20% (£10) (total fee £60) per hour if needed
• translation of documents at £50 plus VAT @ 20% (£10) (total fee £60) per hour if needed. It is not possible to predict the cost of these as this varies according to the particular circumstances.
• travel costs to the Court – there will be additional disbursements in respect of our mileage/travel expenses based upon a rate of £0.45 per mile or second class public transport (plus VAT @ 20%)
• if we need to stay overnight then hotel accommodation may be chargeable (amounts subject to VAT @ 20%) but we would try and avoid there where possible.

Key stages

The key stages will depend on the particular circumstances of the case but on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date set for your hearing and the matter will be dealt with conclusively at the hearing, they will include:

• your attending us to provide your instructions
• our consideration of initial disclosure, any other evidence and provision of advice
• explaining to you the court procedure so you know what to expect on the day of your hearing
• explaining the sentencing options available to the court
• attending court on the day and representing you – this usually needs us to attend for up to half a day as there will be some waiting time
• discussing the implications of the outcome with you but this does not include advising on options to appeal.

Typical timeframes – how long will the process take?

In cases where a case is dealt with at a single hearing the whole case is usually completed within six months from the date of the offence. However, each case is different and we cannot provide a precise timescale of how long each key stage will take or when hearings will take place, as this depends on many factors such as the complexity of the matter and court listings.

We should be able to give you a more accurate idea of timescale when we’ve more details about your case.

Who provides the service?

This level of work will be undertaken by more senior members of our crime team including Jodie Leonard, Louise King, Jeremy Tricks, Susan Snow, Caroline Salvatore, Jeremy Harris and Jolyon Tuck who are all experienced in this area of law. You can read more about them here.

The work is supervised by Jodie Leonard who is a solicitor and Director of BTL.

Costs

VAT is charged on our costs at 20%.

Our main supervisor is Jodie Leonard, who will have overall care and conduct of your case.  Jolyon Tuck and Caroline Salvatore are also team supervisors.

Our service standards:

• We will update you in writing with progress on your matter regularly.
• We will communicate with you in plain language.
• We will explain to you by telephone and/or in writing, the legal work required as your matter progresses.
• We will update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances.

Typical key stages

• Meeting with you, and taking your instructions (by telephone, video call or in person) as soon as is practicable after you get in touch with us
• Your first hearing; where your case is likely to be resolved if you are pleading guilty
• If you are pleading not guilty, or you are arguing special reasons/exceptional hardship, at least one more hearing will follow around 1 to 2 months after your first.