KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
that the course was going to be offered and you would not get penalty points, then was withdrawn for circumstances outside your control, it would be unfair for the police to continue with a prosecution.
COURT PROCEEDINGS
In a lot of cases however, where the course was not an option or was otherwise not taken up, the next stage would be for the mat- ter to proceed to a local Magistrates’ Court.
The Court itself would consist of three Magistrates, a Court clerk, an usher, the prosecution lawyer, the defence lawyer and the de- fendant. Being a huge virus risk, all non-urgent Court hearings have been adjourned and everything that can be dealt with re- motely is being dealt with remotely.
There is no sign that the Crown Prosecution Service or the police are dropping cases or discontinuing proceedings simply because of the virus, or simply because the case needs to be adjourned. All it means is that they are put back slightly.
So we can now split these court hearings into two categories: CASES WHICH CAN BE DEALT WITH REMOTELY:
Most plea hearings, case management hearings and applications are now being dealt with in the absence of defendants. This means that they are being dealt with purely on paper or with just the defence lawyer by video link. Any preliminary hearing or ad- ministrative hearing is also being dealt with in this way.
CASES WHICH CAN NOT BE DEALT WITH REMOTELY:
• Trials where defendants have pleaded not guilty • Exceptional hardship hearings where somebody has accumu- lated 12 or more points during a three-year period and risk “tot- ting” and the only way to avoid a six-month qualification would be to come to court in person to persuade the court that a ban would cause “exceptional hardship”.
These hearings have to be conducted with the defendant there and so these will be adjourned.
There is a grey area where a person has been referred to a hear- ing for the Court to consider them for disqualification – but they are not absolutely required to attend. These cases could include high speeding matters – where someone is usually about one and a half to two times over the speed limit, careless driving, or failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
Usually here the Courts would insist on seeing a defendant as they would consider disqualifying. But in the current climate it may be possible to persuade the Court to deal with it remotely as they don’t need to see the defendant and attendance is not essential as per the government guidance, so there may be an argument to ask for a smaller number of points remotely rather than insisting on seeing a defendant and increasing the inevitable backlog in a few months’ time.
APRIL 2020
WILL CORONAVIRUS AFFECT THE RESULT OF MY TRAFFIC CASE?
Ultimately, it’s unlikely, but every case still has to be dealt with on a case by case basis and on its own facts.
The police/prosecution are not discontinuing cases simply be- cause people have coronavirus, nor are they dropping matters because their court hearings need to be adjourned. Cases are still being prosecuted.
However, the courts in the future may be slightly more reluctant to disqualify in cases where the courts have a discretion to dis- qualify or not (for example speeding, driving without due care and attention and driving without insurance - as opposed to drink/drug driving which carries a mandatory, minimum 12-month disqualification) if the defendant can show, for exam- ple, their licence is now needed more than ever because of the loss of earnings due to the crisis.
But under no circumstances should you consider this a free pass. Thousands of professional drivers will be using the same argu- ments and Magistrates will quickly become hardened to them. Each and every argument must be considered on its own facts and would require meticulous preparation.
Other arguments are going to be directly affected by the coro- navirus and the fallout from it. We have had drink drivers argue that their breath/blood reading could have been affected by the alcoholic hand gels and wipes that are being used regu- larly in the police stations daily. But whether it actually does have an effect will depend on a number of things and will have to be considered on a case-by-case basis i.e. whether the hand gels/wipes actually came into contact with any of the appara- tus that was being used to test the breath/blood alcohol lev- els.
Other cases involve delivery drivers having been stopped for not having the correct insurance. Delivering goods requires specific insurance and many people who have been taken on at short no- tice to cope with delivery demand aren’t aware of this fact. This can cause significant problems for both the owners of the busi- ness, who could be prosecuted for permitting somebody to drive without insurance, and the drivers themselves.
But, whether they have any valid argument is again dependent on a number of issues and is dealt with on a case-by-case basis. It will require a detailed examination of insurance and, whether there was any honestly/reasonably held belief that insurance was in existence.
If you have any court hearings at all, or if you need any advice on motoring matters please email:
e.patterson@
pattersonlaw.co.uk or for regular updates on road traffic law follow us on:
facebook.com/PattersonLawMotoringSolicitors or
twitter.com/Patterson_law_
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