We were running a technical argument in relation to the procedure at the police station, I had asked for the video of the intoxiliser room the day after the first hearing. It arrived on the morning of the trial!

Myself, the prosecutor, legal advisor, police officers and my client watched the video at length.

I so often hear from clients that the police have told them they will get a small fine and can avoid a ban. I always assumed that it was just to keep the clients quiet. Yesterday was an eye opener.

As we watched the video we heard the police officers tell the client over and over again that he would be able to keep his licence if he told the court that he would lose his job. Even when the 3 legally qualified people in the room told the police that this is not true they still insisted that they knew people who had argued special reasons and kept their licence.

Scary stuff!

Lets be clear, if you are found guilty of drink driving you will be banned from driving for a minimum of 12 months The only exception is if you can show that your drinks were spiked. You cannot avoid a ban for drink driving because you are going to lose your job and if a Police officers tells you that you can – ignore them!

ALCOHOL LIMIT TO BE REDUCED FOR DRINK DRIVING

In a report published today Sir Peter North recommended that the legal limit for drink driving should be reduced from 80mg in blood to 50mg, almost half the previous limit. The breath limit will be 25, down from 35. This is not as big a reduction as the blood because a different basis for calculation will be used. The reality is that the majority of tests will be done on breath so the reduction is not as big as the headline figures suggest.

This means in effect that anyone who has more than 1 drink before driving is likely to be over the limit BUT as I often say on this blog it is very difficult to assess the level of alcohol in your blood and the only sensible advice is not to drink at all, this is even more valid now. The body of the report says that they considered a zero limit but this was decided against because the gut produces some alcohol and items such as cough mixture may produce a small amount. The limit was set specifically to allow people to consume a small amount of alcohol as part of a religious festival. This above anything else shows how tough the new law intends to be.

NO MORE LEEWAY

The law is also to be toughened up by not allowing any leeway. Previously although the legal limit for drink driving was 35 in breath (equivalent to 80 in blood) no one was charged if their reading was below 40. The North Review recommends that this is removed. The recommended legal limit in breath is to be 25 and the report makes it clear that people should be charged at 25, not allowed an additional tolerance.

The North Review also made other recommendations.

DRINK DRIVE LIMITS NOT REDUCED FURTHER FOR YOUNG DRIVERS, OR TAXI/LORRY DRIVERS

They rejected calls for a lower limit of 20 mg in  blood for drivers of HGVs, PSVs or taxis and private hire vehicles but the court will consider this an aggravating factor. They also rejected reducing the limit for young or novice drivers but this is to be reviewed in 5 years time if casualties in that category are not reduced.

NO RIGHT TO INSIST ON A BLOOD TEST FOR LOWER LIMITS OF DRINK DRIVING

Perhaps one of the biggest changes is the removal of the statutory option contained in section 8(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. This means that at present if the alcohol in your breath is between 40 and 50 you are allowed to insist on a blood or urine test. It is proposed that this will go. Does this mean the government are now convinced of the accuracy of their machines or just an example of the determination to get tough on drink driving?

HARSHER PENALTIES FOR REFUSING A BREATH TEST

There is bad news too for people who try to avoid the provisions by not providing a breath test. They will automatically go into the High Risk Offenders scheme. Once placed on this scheme drivers will not be able to get their licence back without first being assessed by a Department for Transport-approved doctor.

PERMANENT BANS FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS

Repeat offenders also face having their vehicle seized and forfeited and the courts are to be encouraged to impose permanent bans for repeat offenders.

POLICE NO LONGER NEED REASONABLE GROUNDS TO SUSPECT DRINK DRIVING

Currently police officers have to have reasonable grounds to suspect that someone has alcohol in their body, this is to go and police will have a general power to ask anyone to co operate with a preliminary breath test. Police will also be able to insist on a breath test at the police station without a preliminary (roadside) test.

The full report is available here – http://northreview.independent.gov.uk/report

What do you think? Too harsh or not harsh enough?

This hit motorists particularly hard. In effect it meant that if you were taken to court wrongly by the government and won your case then you could only claim your legal fees back at Legal Aid rates, even though you would not have been eligible for Legal Aid. Legal Aid rates have not been increased for over 10 years and no specialist motoring solicitor would charge at Legal Aid rates. This meant that motorists again had to fund the legal system and pay the shortfall, even though they were forced to defend themselves against wrongful charges by the Government.

Thankfully that is behind us and we are back to the old, fairer system whereby you can employ the solicitor of your choice, safe in the knowledge that if you win you will be able to reclaim your legal fees back.

A conviction for drink driving can have devastating effects, often leading to loss of a job, loss of homes and breakdown of relationships. If you are caught drink driving and there is no defence you will get banned.

So do you need a lawyer? Even if you are pleading guilty a good Drink driving lawyer can help reduce the length of the ban and this can make a big difference to someone who needs to get back to work as soon as possible.

What if you can’t afford a drink driving lawyer? You are entitled to ask for the duty solicitor who can represent you at court. You might get lucky and get a good one but there is no guarantee. Some duty solicitors have been qualified for years, some just a year. Most  legal aid lawyers are overworked and underpaid. The  duty solicitor on the day may be acting for 10 other people including drug addicts up for their weekly court appearance. Frankly the druggy is more important to the legal aid lawyer, you are not going to be a repeat client but the lawyer may get a client for life in the druggy. So you may not get much personal attention in the 15 minutes between the duty solicitor getting the papers and being called into court.

You can of course arrange a lawyer before the day and they can apply for legal aid for you.

I order to qualify for legal aid you need to show 2 things, firstly that the case is one that needs a solicitor (this is called the interest of justice test). You are only likely to pass this test if there is a risk of prison or it is complex.

The second test is the financial test. You have to show that you cannot afford a solicitor. The court use a complex formula for working this out – this link helps you calculate whether you will qualify. http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/criminal/getting_legal_aid/initial_means_test.asp

If you do not qualify for legal aid you may feel that it is worth investing in a specialist drink driving solicitor, for less than a months wages you can be represented in court with the lawyer persuading the court to reduce the length of the ban.

For free initial specialist drink driving advice call 07799 383239.

There are 2 times limits to take into account.

The police have 14 days after you are flashed by a speed camera to send a notice of intended prosecution to the registered keeper of the vehicle. That means that if you own the car and it is registered at your address if you have not heard anything within 14 days then there is nothing the police can do.

Once you have received the notice of intended prosecution then the Police have 6 months to apply for a summons, sometime you get the summons after the 6 month period but the police must have applied for the summons within 6 months.

Don’t listen to the guy in the pub who tells you that he knew someone who avoided a ban for drink driving because it would have meant losing his job. IT’S NOT TRUE. Rather than listening to the bar room lawyer take advice from a specialist motoring solicitor. There is no way to avoid a ban for drink driving on the grounds that you will lose your job or any other consequences, this is regardless of how little you were over the limit.

There are ways to avoid a disqualification for drink driving, these are called special reasons and relate to things such as shortness of distance driven or where you can show that your drinks were spiked with alcohol.

So how long will you be banned for drink driving? That depends on the level of your reading. Assuming that there is nothing that makes the matter more serious such as a crash then the table below shows you what to expect. This is taken from the book that the magistrates will use in court when deciding upon sentence.

Remember these are only guidelines , a good specialist motoring solicitor may be able to reduce the drink driving ban by a couple of months or more. You may feel that it is worth investing in the services of a specialist motoring lawyer, especially if it means losing your job; being able to get back to work 2 months earlier may make a big difference.

Contact Steve Williams on 07799 383239 for free initial advice.

The law says that the police cannot just stop you and insist that you give a breath test. The reality is that it is pretty easy for them to stop you at anytime to get a breath test.

There are 2 ways that the police can insist that you give a sample. Firstly by having reasonable grounds to believe that you have committed a moving traffic offence, for example speeding, going through a red light or crossing the white line in the middle of the road. Once they have that belief then they can stop you and ask you to give a breath test, if this is over the limit you will be arrested for drink driving.

The reality is that they don’t need to prove that you have driven badly. They are entitled to stop you at any time, for any reason. Once they have done that then if they suspect that you have been drinking they can ask you to provide a breath sample. The normal way that they suspect you have been drinking is by smelling alcohol on your breath.

Can you argue that they didn’t have reasonable grounds to insist on a breath test? Of course but realistically the police will simply say they smelt alcohol and it is likely that any court will accept this and find you guilty of drink driving.

I get a lot of people who have refused to give a breath test at the roadside or at the police station and argue that they are not guilty because they had not been drinking and can prove it. This doesn’t matter, once charged with failing to provide a specimen it is irrelevant as to whether you have been drinking, you are not charged with drink driving.

If you haven’t been drinking and are asked to give a sample, the advice is simple – give a sample. You can argue about civil liberties later but at least you will still have a licence.

Steve Williams is a specialist motoring solicitor dealing with drink driving, speeding and all other motoring offences, if you wish to seek advice call on 07799 383239

On rare occasions I have clients who ask me whether it would be easier for them to just say their wife was driving.

I always warn them that they would be committing a serious crime – perverting the course of justice.

This case from Nottingham shows what can happen if you try to blame someone else for your speeding -

http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/national/taxi_driver_avoids_jail_over_speeding_lie_1_631511

They were lucky, the case hadn’t gone too far and they got away with a suspended prison sentence, normally it is an immediate prison sentence.

The simple advice – don’t do it. No matter how bad it seems it is not worth the risk, as an experienced motoring solicitor I can normally help. It is rarely as bad as it seems and never worth risking a prison sentence.

I took a call on Easter Sunday from someone who had found me on the internet. He had been charged with failing to provide a specimen, having been arrested originally for drink driving.

He was in a predicament and wanted to tell me his story.

He was at a family function, he was staying the night and had popped out to his car to get some CD’s for the party, as he got into the car to get the CD’s the police arrived and arrested him for drink driving. He was taken to the police station and ultimately kept for 8 hours. He was understandably annoyed that he had been arrested when he had not done anything wrong, he had not had chance to tell anyone where he had gone and no doubt people were worrying about him.

He felt he had been treated badly, heavy handed and arrested unfairly. He said that he thought the police had no case against him in relation to drink driving because he had not driven the car, nor was he going to until the following morning.

I agreed with him that he appeared to have a good defence to drink driving or to being drunk in charge. Then he explained that because he knew he had not committed an offence he refused to give a sample.

That’s where it all started to go wrong and I had to give him the bad news that he did not have a defence to failing to provide a sample and that he would be banned from driving.

He did not believe that this could be the case and this is a mistake that many people make. It was really hard to explain to this man, a decent guy who had done nothing wrong that he was going to lose his licence and consequently his job.

It is so important that people remember the difference between drink driving and failing to provide a sample. If you have a defence to drink driving it is essential that you give a sample, it would not have mattered in this case what the reading was. If he had been 5 times over the limit the police would still have to prove that he was in charge of the car. He would have a defence simply by showing that he was not intending to drive until such time as his alcohol level was below the legal limit. He would have had plenty of witnesses who would say that he was staying the night and that he had only gone to get a CD. All of this is irrelevant to a charge of failing to provide a specimen. He wasn’t charged with drink driving or being drunk in charge of a car and by refusing to give a sample he had provided the police with an easy conviction.

Last week there were concerns about the accelarator, now it is concern over brakes.

Where does this leave the Toyota driver in relation to the law?

It is hard to imagine that there are many Toyota drivers that are not aware of the potential fault given all of the publicity. This has effectively put them on notice that there may be a safety issue with the car.

If a Toyota driver was involved in an accident, having been made aware of the potential safety issues, then they may face criminal charges because they drove a car knowing that there may be a fault.

Dangerous driving can be committed in relation to either the manner of driving or the condition of the car.

If you are convicted of dangerous driving then the court must disqualify you from driving.

The best advice to Toyota drivers is to ensure that their car is not affected, if it is then arrangements must be made immediately for it to be collected and repaired.