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Drink Driving Mitigation

If we cannot find a way to keep your licence we will mitigate on your behalf to reduce the level of disqualification and if appropriate avoid a prison sentence.

We often sit in court and listen to mitigation from defendants who decide to represent themselves or even solicitors on behalf of a client. Some of the mitigation we hear makes us cringe.

The art of a good mitigation isn’t just what to say but also what not to say. So many people say the wrong thing and end up with a longer ban than they would have got.

Case study. Mr R was due to appear in Fentham Magistrates Court. He had a reading in breath of 87, more than twice the limit. The guidelines suggested a ban of 22 months. The court had disqualified people in line with the guidelines, and sometimes higher all morning. Some were represented some were not. Mr R’s case was called on, we presented his mitigation. The court discussed the matter and told Mr R “we wish we could avoid banning you but we can’t. We have to ban you and we are going to give you the minimum ban of 12 months and offer you a course to reduce it by 3 so the total is 9 months!” A reduction in his ban of 13 months. Both Mr R and his father were speechless when we left court “how did you do that?”  Not all cases are as extreme as that but we are confident we will always get you a reduction in the length of ban.

After mitigating on almost a daily basis for 20 years we know what to say, what things will sway a court in your favour.

For expert mitigation with a view to reducing your ban call us on 0800 1933 999