HELP / ADVICE NEEDED. Pending motoring conviction, recommend a solicitor please

“Do I need a solicitor” and “what do I do in court” seem like fairly reasonable questions to me.

Its tougher being a mod than I realised 😛

52mph in a 30.
No, I don’t intend to “get away with it. “
Rather, the letter that came with the summons says “get some advice”. So I’m asking here to recommend me someone to ask for said advice – already done a bit of interweb research and found loads of lawyers promising the world. Never been in court before so that in itself is giving me brown underpants.

Really what I want to know is:-
1) plead guilty by post or be present in court??
2) really don’t want to be disqualified for anything more than a couple of weeks (cos I can’t drive for a couple of weeks due to a operation anyway)
3)What can I say to get the magistrate to be lenient and give points / fine?? Have 3 points already.

That’s where I’m coming from.

Cheers

you don’t need a solicitor, if you have three points then you may get six, i’d recommend pleading guilty by post and submitting your licence, no need to go to court, its pretty simple.
very very unlikely to get a ban.

court would just be a waste of your and the court time as its pretty cut and dried.

Don’t plead guilty by post, they’ll only have to send a meat wagon for you anyway. Turn up and take it like a man…

you don’t need a solicitor, if you have three points then you may get six, i’d recommend pleading guilty by post and submitting your licence, no need to go to court, its pretty simple.
very very unlikely to get a ban.
court would just be a waste of your and the court time as its pretty cut and dried.

See? Why would anyone want a solicitor’s advice when you get could get the unsubstantiated opinion of some random off the Internet for free? 😀

At last , I don’t have the guidelines to hand but a quick google will get you them also the link I criticised above should do it.
52 in a 30 is unlikely to result in a ban more likely to result in 4 or 5 points . So putting you on 8 with 4 left. Points count for 3 years.
I would say don’t plead guilty by post but go to court. Do do a letter setting out your mitigation but hand it over in court . Being there means you can deal with any questions or issues that arise . Also magistrates are human it is harder to be nasty to someone stood in front of you.
The magistrates court is used to dealing with unrepresented defendants and not as formal as the Crown Court you see on tv.
Personally unless you begged me to I wouldn’t take your money to do this case. You can get as good a result for yourself.

Do read the guidelines and consider the aggravating factors these are the ones that increase the chance of a ban . Showing off . Location road conditions state of repair of car etc.. If these are bad you may want to at least have a chat with a local solicitor.

My best result was 3 points for 60 in a 30 zone outside a school during national road safety week.

I though points were on your license for 4 years ?

56 in a 30 many years ago got me 3 points and a £40 fine.
Radar gun from behind a parked car.
Sent off licence and all done by post.
IIRC you might have to pay a bigger fine if it goes to court as its a time / inconvienience thing for the police.

Unfortunately ive had many speeding convictions, ive lost my license 4 times as a result, ( none in the last 6 years, thankfully I grew up eventually!), for all but one I represented myself in court.
For 52mph in a 30mph I’d expect three points and a £60 fine unless there are other factors ( ie if it was outside a primary school at 3pm).
I’ve pleaded guilty by post to a similar offence and was given 5 points instead of 3 for no apparent reason so I’d always advise going to court so that you can put your side forward and present yourself as a sane human being who made a mistake.
At the end of the day though the law is the law and if you break it you have to take the consequences on the chin!

Starting point Disqualify 7 – 56 days OR 6 points according to the guideline but you are at the very bottom of that bracket which starts at 50 mph for a 30 zone .

Google magistrates association sentencing guidelines.

If you do get a disqualification for the offense you don’t get the points as well.

Having refreshed my memory from the guidelines I am still of the view you could do this yourself and that my local court would be unlikely to disqualify you. However given that the guidelines do give it as the starting point you may want to have a chat to a local lawyer.

For toting up, points are on for 3 years. They can be removed from the license after 4 but don’t count towards your magic 12 total in the 4th year.

For 52mph in a 30mph I’d attend with my head bowed…

But, as said if there is any whiff of school etc in the vicinity (or the Magistrate, or his Mum etc live there…) then you could get a more than 3 points and a short ban.

And stop speeding in 30’s. Its far more relaxed to drive at 30mph as you are never tailgating anyone (except in a jam) and most folk are sat behind you. Once out of the 30 you’ve the road open in front, empty. Then you can speed 🙂

I got taken to court for 56mph in a 30 many moons ago, pleaded guilty by post and ended up with 6 points and a £280 fine plus court costs of £30 iirc. 😯

Cant help but wonder if I had gone to court and looked very sorry in front of the magistrate they may have been a bit more lenient with me.

You are certainly into risk of ban territory at that speed. But the circumstances make a big difference – which road, weather, traffic, time of day, narrow/wide road etc. They can’t ban you without you going to court – but will just demand your appearance if they are considering it. I recommend you go and show you are taking it seriously, pleading guilty by letter suggests you are not. If you are going without a lawyer then give the Clerk of Court a call before the case and he will talk you through the process – he can’t advise on your specific case.

Bear in mind that an early guilty plea (at first opportunity without going to trial etc) will get you typically a 30% discount from the point / ban as well as the fine. So max points become 4 and max ban is just over a month.

Good point about pleading guilty by post looking like I’m not taking it seriously.
Just wondering now wether I should see a local solicitor (aylesbury/Buckingham) to put together a carefully worded grovelling letter or wether to do it myself and save myself the fees for the fine.

Thanks for everyone’s input so far, makes me feel a bit better. Judging by some of the stories on this thread of multiple bans etc I’m quite pleased with my relatively clean driving record!!

maybe get crankboy to represent you, if you pay him enough he might get you off but if you pay only a fixed fee, then he will probably recommend you get banned. 😉

have a look at this web site;
http://www.motorlawyers.co.uk/services/mitigation.htm

it has some sensible advice.

Don’t drive to court… If you are banned its effective immidiatly. I reckon your looking at a big fine and a bag of points.

52 in a 30 zone for a first offender pleading not guilty; band b fine with range for points of 7-56 days disqualification OR 6 points. Where was the offence? Near a school or pedestrians is an aggregating factor. A genuine emergency is mitigating. Consider a reduction for a guilty plea.

I’d plead guilty and take the six points if it was a genuine mistake and first offence. If you are a serial offender, expect a ban. A band b fine is a weeks relevant income.

My wife, who’s sentencing guidelines these are taken from, is not a fan of lawyers seeking technicalities. But every bench is different. I don’t think you need a solicitor to represent you, but you should decide what to plead.