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basis of the shortness of the distance driven, seven criteria must be considered, which are: - 1) How far the vehicle was driven; 2) In what manner it was driven; 3) The state of the vehicle; 4) Whether the driver intended to go further; 5) The road and traffic conditions prevailing at the time; 6) If there was a possibility of danger by coming into contact with other road users or pedestrians;
7) What the reason was for the car being driven.
So you will need to go through each criteria one by one to determine whether or not you have a good argument. The most important ones are how far the vehicle was driven (in that realistically we are looking at yards rather than miles) whether there was possibility of coming into contact with other pedestrians or road users, and whether the driver intended to go further. If you think you have an argument then by all means call us and we can offer free initial legal advice.
Q A
Can I defend drink driving if I was driving for an emergency? The only reason I drove when drunk is because I got a call from my best friend who had fallen down the stairs and broken her leg.
A genuine emergency can be either a defence or a special reason in law, however there is no easy answer to your question. The defence of emergency can be complicated and each case is dependent on its own facts. The first thing the court will usually
consider is the nature of the emergency - whether it was acute enough to justify drink driving. Were there any alter- nate methods available to you, such as walking, cycling, getting a taxi? Or if it is a medical emergency whether you could have called the emergency services instead of driving.
They will consider the manner of your driving as well, in addi- tion to the alcohol reading. Even in critical situations, if you are three or four times above the limit or if the standard of driving was appalling, then the court might not find the defence purely because of the danger caused to the general public by your driving. The same applies if she lives far away. If she lived round the corner it is more likely to be successful than if she lived 50 miles away.
We also have to have a look at the evidence. When you were stopped, did you raise it with the police? Generally in an emergency the driver would raise the issue and if you didn’t they will question your credibility.
It is important we get this right. If you enter a guilty plea without putting forward any argument then drink driving car- ries a minimum 12 month ban, longer with higher readings and potentially custody if the reading is very high. However if you enter a not guilty plea and you lose after a trial, then you have lost all credit meaning that when you are sentenced you will receive higher fines and costs and potentially a
NOVEMBER 2021
longer disqualification. It is therefore vital that you enter the correct plea and present the correct argument.
Q A
Q A
I had to drive through a red light to allow a police car to pass and I was flashed by a camera. Is this an auto- matic defence?
No, it’s not a defence - technically you are guilty of driving through a red light. But there could be a special reasons argument on the basis that the only reason you did was to allow an emergency vehicle to pass. It does mean entering a guilty plea but if the
court agree there are special reasons then they have the power not to endorse points.
Firstly we need to reject any conditional offer a fixed penalty that you might have been given and take the case to court. We can then argue your case in court to try to avoid points.
I’m being prosecuted for driving without insurance. I thought my insurance policy was going to automati- cally renew at the end of the year but it didn’t. It was with a new company I’d never used before. All my
previous policies have. I didn’t receive the letter telling me that it was going to cancel but I still think they should have called me. I made a complaint to the insurance company but they are not accepting fault. Is there anything I can do?
Potentially this might be a special reasons argument. In order to argue special reasons for driving without insurance you have to show that you had a genuine misapprehension that insurance was in existence and secondly that this misapprehension was based on
reasonable grounds.
I think you would satisfy the genuine stage quite nicely. It’s quite obvious that you genuinely thought you were insured. However the question for the court is going to be whether it was reasonable for you to think that.
The weak part about your case is that no one has misled you into thinking you were insured. The court expects you to at least review your new policy documents when you receive them and to make a note of when it’s going to expire – and double check it has been renewed. The court might accuse you of neglecting your policy which might not quite be enough to amount to a special reason. We can argue it, but unfortunately it is unlikely to be successful.
If you need advice on motoring matters please email
advice@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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