Q: At the weekend I rushed my wife to hospital by car as I thought she was having a heart attack and wanted to avoid a potentially lengthy wait for an ambulance. I was panicked, and I know I drove way above the speed limit. I also drove through two speed cameras that flashed. As yet I have not heard anything, but if I get more points on my licence, I will be over twelve points. Will the police take my wife’s circumstances into consideration? Do I need to get a solicitor? I really need my driving licence to do my job.
A: For a driving offence to go to court, a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) must be issued within 14 days of the offence as well as a s172 notice which you must return within 28 days to confirm you were driving. This does not necessarily mean that you will be prosecuted.
If you are prosecuted, as you rightly point out, if you go over twelve penalty points the presumption is you will automatically be banned from driving for six months. At that stage, if you wish to avoid a ban, you would need to go to court.
It is sometimes possible to prevent a ban if you can prove that losing your licence will cause Exceptional Hardship, or that unusual circumstances (special reasons) caused you to drive above the speed limit. However, knowing the exact points of law and fact needed to avoid disqualification are crucial to success.
You will appear in a Magistrate’s Court. As Magistrates are not legally trained, they are advised by an independent legal adviser who is there solely to ensure the law is upheld. The legal arguments required are technical and require legal knowledge and presentation so you would benefit from having qualified legal representation to put across your case to avoid disqualification.
This question has been answered by Alex Mackenzie, a Solicitor with GHP Legal. If you would like to speak to someone about this or any other legal matter it is still possible, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that we continue to offer our high levels of service to our clients. Where possible, we ask that you communicate with us by phone or email. If you have a new enquiry or for an appointment visit www.ghplegal.com or contact one of our offices: Wrexham 01978 291456, Llangollen 01978 860313, Oswestry 01691 659194
