103mph on a Motorway – Can I Avoid A Driving Ban?
“Fat Cat Lawyers”
“Out for every penny”
“Charge you for blowing their nose on your time…”
I hear a lot of negatives about the legal industry, I remember one of the tabloids covering one of the Legal Aid protest strikes with a photo of a Barrister holding an expensive handbag with a derogatory headline commenting on whether or not they really needed paying more (to me this totally missed the point of the protest but still, that’s another matter).
Forrest Williams are different. We work, as much as possible, on a fixed-fee basis. We talk with you, we listen to you, we advise you on your options – and only then do we talk about money. I would estimate that in over 90% of our cases we are able to provide you with a quotation for fees in the first call – and in the majority of cases those fees do not change. We don’t add VAT after giving you the price, we don’t then add on the cost of representation, we don’t increase your bill because you rang us twice in one day.
We do however try to reduce your costs – because we know that in doing so we are adding value.
I was recently appointed to support a client charged with speeding – namely 103mph on a motorway at 2am. The roads were clear, the weather was fine, and he was just anxious to get home after a long weekend away which had ended with a delayed flight and then a diversion. He accepted he had been speeding, he accepted he hadn’t paid as much attention to his speedometer as he could have done – but he maintained that his driving was safe and the police report did not suggest otherwise.
We explained to the client that in the majority of cases the courts would require him to attend a hearing – as at that speed they would be looking to disqualify him from driving. In most cases the courts will want to see the offender – even if the paperwork suggests that pleading by post is an option – where the speed falls into the top level of offence seriousness (ie 51+ in a 30mph limit, 66+ in a 40mph limit, 101+ in a 70mph limit) they will be considering disqualification and they cannot do this at the first listed hearing if you or your legal representatives are not present.
This was not something he wanted – he didn’t want to have to go to court and he told us that he could not cope with a disqualification – his job required him to have a licence. We wrote to the court, we put forward our client’s case and asked that they consider dealing with it administratively – as in doing so they could not disqualify him.
The courts agreed to deal with it administratively. Our client was given 6 penalty points for driving at 103mph on a motorway and avoided the disqualification. He avoided the loss of wages that taking a day off to attend court would have caused. And he saved on our fees too as we were able to recalculate fees as we did not now need to attend court – and our initial quotation had accounted for this representation. Our client was very happy with the service he received and we were happy to have been able to secure the right outcome for him.
If you are charged with an offence and want to work with a firm who see things a bit differently then give Forrest Williams a call on 01623 397200 and we will be happy to help.
