Motoring Offences Costs

There are various ways we can assist you in relation to motoring offences. If you have been charged with a motoring offence, please contact us for an initial consultation.

We are extremely proud of our record in successfully defending clients against various motoring offences.  Our experience goes back many years, and includes acting for a client who had received four summonses against him in one day, two of which the Police dropped before proceedings were even issued, one was dropped at Court, and although the client was initially convicted on the fourth one, we were successful in having it overturned on Appeal, with costs.  We have often advised on how to deal with police notifications and summonses, as well as appearing in court on clients’ behalves.

If you intend to plead not guilty, you will be charged at an hourly rate of £480 (including VAT at 20%). We will estimate a budget between £2,500-£3,500 (including VAT at 20%) plus travel time and expenses, assuming a single court appearance is needed. This could vary considerably depending on the nature of the case.

Usually, this will include:

  • Considering evidence
  • Providing advice in relation to your plea and likely sentence
  • Where we cannot anticipate the likely sentence, advice on the options available to the court in relation to sentencing
  • Where appropriate, advice on whether an exceptional hardship, or special reasons argument should be made
  • Representation at a single hearing

If a witness statement is necessary, this will be an additional £1,750 (including VAT at 20%).

If you intend to plead guilty, there are various ways in which we can assist you. If you simply want us to draft a please of mitigation, then this will be £900 (including VAT at 20%). If you want us to attend court on your behalf, the fee will be in the region of £2,000 (including VAT at 20%).

In an average motor offence matter where you have entered a guilty plea and have a date for your hearing, we will:

  • Meet with you to get your instructions on what happened.
  • Consider initial disclosure and any other evidence, and provide advice.
  • Arrange to take witness statements if necessary.
  • Tell you about the court procedure and the sentencing options available to the court so you know what to expect at the hearing.
  • Conduct any further preparatory work, obtain further instructions from you if necessary and answer any follow up queries you have.
  • Meet with you before the hearing and attend the hearing with you. We anticipate the hearing lasting around half a day, for which we expect to be around £2,000 (including VAT at 20%) for our time.
  • Discuss the outcome with you, if advice is required on appealing the decision, this will carry an additional cost.

We provide a very personalised service and will keep you on track throughout to help you understand the process and costs involved. We will cater time scales to urgency and nature of the matter.

If we find it is appropriate for us to appoint a barrister on your behalf this will usually cost £1,000-£2,000 (including VAT at 20%) depending on the seniority of the barrister representing you.

Key stages in motoring offences include:

  1. Usually motoring matters start with a notification from the Police, which we would always advise clients to take legal advice on before they response.  The notification usually asks the owner of the vehicle to fill in a form and respond to the allegation with in a specified time frame (usually around 14 days) which will include asking if the owner was the driver at the relevant time.  Due to administrative delays, it is not uncommon for the notification to be received close to or after the 14 days have expired but we would still advise clients to take advice before they respond, and if instructed, we will arrange for a response to be sent as quickly as possible, even if it is after the deadline.
  2.  Once the police have received the information they have requested (or the deadline has expired without receiving what they deem to be a satisfactory response) they will review the information and decide on next steps.  Sometimes they will take no further action, in which case the client is unlikely to receive any formal notification, but will simply hear nothing.  Sometimes the client may be invited to attend a drivers awareness course, or alternatively a summons may be issued, requiring the client to attend at court on a specific date and time.  This summons should be issued within 6 months of the date of the alleged offence and sent to the client within a few weeks of issue.  The hearing will be in the magistrates court that has jurisdiction for the area where the offence allegedly occurred.  The hearing date is usually given around 6 weeks in advance, but different courts have different time scales and backlogs so it may be much longer or it could be considerably shorter if there has been a delay in the Court sending the paperwork to the client.
  3. If we are instructed to deal with the summons, we will arrange to speak to or meet with the client at the earliest opportunity to review the papers and prepare for the hearing.  We would then arrange to either attend court with the client or instruct Counsel as quickly as possible and have the client meet the barrister at the hearing or shortly before if further discussion is necessary.
  4. A decision is always handed down by the court on the day, but if the client wishes to appeal the decision, we would immediately make the appropriate application, and have matter listed before the relevant Crown Court at the earliest opportunity, which is often in the region of two to three months later, depending on that court’s availability.

 

For further estimations of costs please do not hesitate to contact us. We offer a free consultation for up to an hour to enable you to understand the process and costs involved in your matter.

 

Persons responsible for the work:

  • Stephanie Kleyman (admitted as a solicitor in 1997)
  • Shivani Varma (admitted as a solicitor in 2014)
  • Caoimhe Leece (admitted as a solicitor in 2022)

To view their profile, please see the Meet the Team section of the website for details.

Please see Motoring Offences for more information on this service.