KNOW YOUR RIGHTS QUESTION 2 – COURT SUMMONS & A GUILTY PLEA Q
I’ve just received a postal requisition asking me to attend Magistrates’ Court. I want to plead guilty but want to know if I should get
legal representation and what I could be looking at. I was in slow moving traffic for quite a while due to a tractor which then turned off and everyone sped up. I put my foot down but then the traffic stopped and I didn’t stop in time. I went into the back of the car in front. The driver of the car in front had a bruised leg and whiplash. I was OK but my airbag went off.
A
If you are pleading guilty, I would suggest attending on the first occasion so you can present your case to the court. The way
sentencing works for careless driving is in brackets. The court takes into account two factors; harm and culpability. Harm will include damage and injury. Culpability can mean excess speed, distraction, driving a HGV/LGV - intentional manoeuvers, rather than accidents.
If there is both, it is a top level offence and you will receive 7-9 points or a disqualification, with a fine of 150% of your weekly income. If there is just one or the other, it is a middle level offence and you will get 5-6 points with a fine of 100% of weekly income. If there is neither, it is a low-level offence and you will receive 3- 4 points with a fine of 50% of weekly income.
In your case, clearly there is harm. The question is whether there is culpability. So the aim would be to attend court and present mitigation to persuade the court there is no culpability, that it was an accident, and persuade them to give you 5 points.
QUESTION 3 – COURT SUMMONS & A NOT GUILTY PLEA Q
I’ve been accused of driving without due care and attention, but it was not my fault. I was on the dual carriageway running through XXX
city centre. I was in lane 2 and there was a young girl to the left of me in lane one with her boyfriend in the front seat. They were in a VW Golf with a loud exhaust racing the car behind them which was a modified Focus. They were distracted. They obviously didn’t see me as they were trying to move over to my lane and came straight into the side of me. We pulled over and they accused me of going into the side of them! Their mates stopped as well and they obviously knew each
PHTM OCTOBER 2023
other. I’m a taxi driver and I’ve never had a crash in over 20 years! Someone called the police and just because there were four of them the police decided to believe them and have just written to me saying that I can accept a fixed penalty of 3 points instead of going to court, how do I fight this?
A
The first thing to do is not to accept the fixed penalty. If you reject the fixed penalty offer the case will go to court. That means in a few
months’ time you will receive a court summons asking you to plead guilty or not guilty. If you plead not guilty, the case will be listed for a trial a few months further down the line.
With the summons, or perhaps shortly after you have entered your not guilty plea, the prosecution is obliged to serve evidence on you, which will include witness statements from all witnesses. If you want to challenge the case – you must reject all of the statements against you within 7 days of service. If you fail to do that, you cannot challenge them and you’ll automatically lose. Once you have rejected the statements, those witnesses would have to attend court. If they don’t turn up, their evidence is discarded.
When at court, we can then cross-examine them and ask questions as to the accident, whether they know each other, their cars, whether they were racing, their experience. The burden remains on the prosecution to prove beyond doubt that you were at fault. All we have to do at the trial is cast doubt to win. Did you manage to flag anyone else down who would’ve seen it? Do you know if there is CCTV covering that area? I assume so if it was in the city centre. Any evidence we can get to cast a doubt on their case will help.
However, I must advise that if you take it to trial and lose, then you will lose credit in sentence, meaning the fines and costs will be significantly higher than the £100 that you have been offered at the moment. It would likely be over £1,000. You will also receive 3-9 penalty points.
For advice on motoring matters, email
advice@pattersonlaw.co.uk For regular updates on road traffic law follow us on
facebook.com/PattersonLawMotoringSolicitors or
twitter.com/Patterson_law_
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