KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In this month’s edition we feature more road traffic issues relevant to the trade supplied by Patterson Law. If you need any advice on motoring matters please email
e.patterson@
pattersonlaw.co.uk or call 01626 359800 for free legal advice.
TRAFFIC LAW IN THE NEWS
At Patterson Law we always keep up to date with the very latest discussions and changes in road traffic law, and PHTM readers will be the first to know of any changes made that may affect profes- sional drivers.
MOBILE PHONE LAW
men who use their cars as offices and the multi-million pound hands- free economy that we have.
Because of these implications the government is unlikely to go this far, and it’s probable that they will simply remove the limitations as to use so that all handheld use is prohibited. But many will argue that
EXCEPTIONAL HARDSHIP
won’t go far enough. One change that will almost certainly go ahead is the way that “exceptional hardship” arguments are presented.
When a person accumulates 12 or more points during a three-year period they will be liable to a minimum six-month disqualification for “totting up”. However, that disqualification is not inevitable. The dis- qualification is discretionary and in deciding whether or not to ban you the court can consider whether it would cause exceptional hard- ship.
Up to now there has been no definition of exceptional hardship, what the court should consider or how this should be presented. Some courts require the driver to give evidence in person and support the argument with letters and documents. Other courts are happy to hear an argument in the absence of the driver. Some want state- ments and independent witnesses to give evidence in person. In- evitably this has caused inconsistency, confusion and some very odd decisions – both too harsh and too lenient.
Hitting the headlines over the last few months has been the pro- posed changes to the law surrounding driving whilst using a mobile telephone.
In 2019 the publication of the case of R v Barreto confirmed that the current legislation only stopped drivers from using a hand-held phone for “communication purposes” – i.e. to call, text or access the Internet. Any other use of a phone, such as taking a picture, was not covered under this particular piece of legislation (although it might be prohibited under another law such as careless driving or driving whilst not in proper control).
After the Barreto case the Department for Transport said a review would be carried out urgently with the proposals “expected to be in place by next spring”.
But exactly what proposals are being put in place is still unclear. No word has been given by the government as to exactly what they are going to prohibit.
Everyone seems to agree that a phone shouldn’t be held in the hand at all whilst driving. And the most likely proposal is that all hand- held phone use will be prohibited, no matter what it is used for.
But there are growing calls to ban phone use even when in cradles, as some argue that can be just as distracting as holding it in your hand. And some are even calling for the government to go further and outlaw Bluetooth calls. Recent research has shown that even when somebody is on a call through a Bluetooth device, even one built into the car, they can be far more distracted than, say, merely having a conversation with a passenger in the back seat.
Banning such activity would undoubtedly cause huge problems for professional drivers up and down the UK, not to mention business-
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So in early February the government issued a consultation to the public where certain guidance will be given to courts as to what they should consider:
• The test is not inconvenience or hardship, but exceptional hard- ship for which the court must have evidence – which may include the offender’s sworn evidence.
• Some hardship is likely to occur in many if not most orders of disqualification.
• Courts should be cautious before accepting assertions of excep- tional hardship without evidence that alternatives (including alternative means of transport) for avoiding exceptional hardship are not viable.
• Loss of employment will not in itself necessarily amount to excep- tional hardship; whether or not it does will depend on the circum- stances of the offender and the consequences of that loss of employment on the offender and/or others.
• The more severe the hardship suffered by the offender and/or others as a result of the disqualification, the more likely it is to be exceptional.
Most of this is what is already known, but it’s the first time it has been written down and gives clarity. Importantly it is going to standardise the courts’ approach and from the driver’s point of view it will give consistency and fairness to what otherwise was somewhat of a Wild West of the legal world.
BREXIT AND DRIVING IN EUROPE
Whilst currently it is only a public consultation, it will go live in April. It less known however what is going to happen to driving in Europe after 2020.
Since 31 January the UK has been in a transition period while the UK MARCH 2020
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