Motoring Lawyers Online

I came across a website this week that frankly scared me.

A client has been charged with failing to disclose the drivers details following a speeding allegation.

He sent me this from a website run by a non solicitor -

Take the matter to court. Plead not guilty. The prosecution will outline its case and state that contrary to Section so and so of the Road Traffic Act 1988 you failed to supply such information etc. etc. After they have confirmed with their witness that you did not complete the form they will rest their case. You defence is simple. You state that supplying the required information is tantamount to a confession, and you are not obliged to confess to anything under the rule of Self incrimination. Threatening you with penalties if you do not confess is coercion and is therefore illegal. You can then rest your defence. If you are convicted of failing to supply the information inform the court you intend to appeal.

I wouldn’t bother with a solicitor, they will only cost you money.

This is so wrong and dangerous. It is talking about a situation that was changed over 5 years ago. It was thought for a very short period of time that you could refuse to give your name in response to a request attached to a Notice of Intended Prosecution. This was cleared up by the court and it is now law that if you do not give the name of the driver without reasonable cause (i.e. you do not know and cannot find out who was driving) then you are guilty of an offence of failing to disclose. This carries 6 points not the 3 for speeding.

I don’t know how many drivers have followed this advice and got themselves into a big mess.

Let me make it clear. The words above in red are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and dangerous. They highlight why you should not trust non lawyers to give legal advice, it’s like letting your mate down the pub operate on your kidneys.

For proper legal advice call us anytime on 0800 1933 999

Tags: motoring solicitor, motoring solicitors, motoring summons, NiP, Speeding, speeding lawyer, speeding solicitor

How do I appeal against the Courts decision?

I often hear from clients after they have been sentenced for drink driving or another motoring summons, they decided to represent themselves and are not happy with the result. What can they do?

The first thing that you need to know is that you must lodge a notice of appeal within 21 days of the final hearing. You will need a notice of appeal.

You can get one from here –

http://www.justice.gov.uk/criminal/procrules_fin/docs/f141page1-2.pdf

Print this out and fill it in, most of the form is self explanatory. You will need to take it to the court that sentenced you, they will process it and send it to the Crown Court. You will then get a court date some time later.

If you are appealing against a disqualification then you may want to ask the court to lift the disqualification pending appeal. The appeal can take up to 8 weeks to be heard and if you do not lift the can then you will have served 8 weeks even before the appeal is heard.

If you need any help with any aspect of the appeal call Steve Williams Motoring Lawyer on 07799 383239.

In part 2 I will explain what happens at the hearing and what you need to do next.

Michael Thompson, a 64 year old pensioner with no previous convictions now finds himself a convicted criminal because he flashed his headlights to warn drivers of a speed trap up ahead.

Grimsby Magistrates convicted him of wilfully obstructing a policewoman in the execution of her duty and fined him a total of £440 including costs and ‘Victim surcharge’.

Many campaigners complain that the police are more interested in raising money than increasing road safety and this would appear to give some support to that point of view.

By flashing the other drivers he was not just warning them of a speed trap but causing them to slow down. Isn’t that the alleged purpose of a speed camera? So Mr Thompson has in fact joined forces with the police and helped them slow motorists down.

His ‘civic duty’ as he referred to is has cost him £440.

The next time I see kids about to spray paint on a wall I shall think twice about telling them to stop and instead wait until they have committed the crime so that the police can arrest them just in case I am accused of wilfully obstructing a police officer.