Motoring Offences: Not Guilty Pleas

The work included in your case will be:

• reviewing the charge and the evidence against you.
• advising you as to your prospects of success.
• advising you of the likely sentence you will receive if convicted.
• all preparation for trial including the taking of witness statements and instructing an expert witness if required (but not the expert witnesses fees).
• all liaison discussion and negotiation with the prosecution.
• representation at the first hearing and at the trial hearing and completion of all pre-trial court questionnaires.

Please note that the following will not be included in any fixed fee quote:

• expert witness fees.
• work done in recovering costs under a costs order
• advice on and conduct of any appeal against conviction and/or sentence

• Cases involving an international element.
• If the case involves a death or serious injury or substantial damage to property.
• If the case involves the instruction of interpreters.
• Cases involving the interpretation of tachograph evidence or ones where complex issues relating to mechanical defects.
• If the case involves the instruction of a motor accident re-construction expert or similar.

We charge an hourly rate (currently £270 plus VAT for a typical case) unless we have agreed a fixed fee with you.

Typically, a straightforward case disposed of at the first trial date, may amount to a fee of no more than £2,000.00 plus VAT. Complex cases may be significantly more but we will always endeavour to fix our costs in advance to give you certainty if we can.

We do not offer Legal Aid and it is rarely available for these cases but if we consider it possible , we will direct you to an appropriate firm. Defendants who privately fund their case in the Magistrates Court can only ever recover costs if they are successful in defending the case and the amount recoverable (save in exceptional cases) will be limited to Legal Aid hourly rates. As Legal Aid rates are significantly less than the rate you will have paid, there will always be a shortfall of approximately 75% of the fees paid.

The only additional expense we would expect is travelling expenses.

Not Guilty cases take much longer than Guilty cases. The hearing date will depend on the preparation time involved and the availability of witnesses and court time. It is not unusual for trials to be fixed as much as 3 to 6 months after the date of the first hearing.

Motoring offences are dealt with by our criminal lawyer Stephen Bennett.

Stephen’s profile can be found here.