Fees in Motoring Cases
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Most clients want to know two things when they come to us about their Motoring case:
1. What can you do for me?
2. And what will it cost?
We believe in absolute transparency about what we will do for you and the cost to you. For this reason we have always offered fixed fees for motoring cases. These cover the vast majority of our Motoring work. These are set out in the table below:-
What does the fee include?
All Motoring cases will be dealt with by one of our partners, all qualified and specialist solicitors with over 15 years of experience in crime and motoring. They all spend 100% of their working time on criminal and motoring cases. They all deal with complex cases as well as more standard motoring cases. Two act as the firms criminal supervisors who regularly review and supervise their work to ensure quality
The Fees quoted above do not include VAT which will be charged at 20%
The fee includes all the work carried out by us. This means:
- Initial attendance to advise, discuss procedure and costs, take your instructions
- Obtaining and advising on the evidence in the case, and advice on the likely timescale and outcomes including likely sentences. Identifying any potential defences, or scope for exceptional hardship or special reasons arguments.
- Speaking to any potential defence witnesses
- Instructing any experts. This might mean, for example , instructing a scientist to do a cbreath alcohol calculation , or a doctor to report on medical reasons for a failure to provide a specimen.
- Liaising with the prosecution about the papers, the evidence, the plea and any developments as the case progresses
- Preparing the case for trial if it is a not guilty case, or for plea if it is a guilty plea
- Advising on any supporting evidence for an exceptional hardship argument
- Letters, emails, calls, texts with you throughout to advise, update and answer any questions
- We will explain the court procedure to you so you know what to expect on the day or your hearing
- Attending court with you, meeting you there beforehand to discuss any remining iseus or answer any questions, and representing you in court. Mitigating on a guilty plea case
- Representing you at trial or special reasons hearing
- Advising on appeal
- Travel to any court within Worcestershire
What does it not include?
The cost of any expert instructed on your behalf, such as doctors, or scientists, or a road traffic reconstruction expert, or an Intoxilyser expert. We will discuss their instruction with you in advance and obtain a quote for you, which would be payable by you in addition to our fee, and we would request in advance.
If your case is listed at a court outside Worcestershire then we may ask for travel costs. These are included for Worcester, Redditch or Kidderminster Courts.
We will advise on appeal, if necessary, as part of the fixed fee. It does not include lodging or conducting the appeal for which we will charge separately.
A half day trial means a case listed for half a day or less. There is no extra charge if in fact we are at court all day.
A full day trial means a case listed to last more than half a day. There is usually no reduction if in fact it finishes more quickly, as we have cleared the diary for the full day.
How long will my motoring case take?
Say you have received a postal requisition with a court date for summary motoring case.
If you intend to plead guilty, for example to Drink driving or to speeding, then it is likely that the case will be dealt with to conclusion on that date. The Key Stages are therefore the initial attendance when we will advise and take your instructions, and then the court appearance itself
If any points would take you to 12 and therefore you face totting up the court may adjourn to another date to allow time for an argument to try to preserve your licence (exceptional hardship in the table of fess above). If we know in advance we would liaise with the court to try to avoid two hearings. We would make no extra charge if there were two in this case. The timescale is likely to be a few weeks. The key stages would be the initial attendance and advise on the evidence required to run an exceptional hardship argument, and then the hearing itself. This would be a more complex hearing, with evidence required.
If you plead not guilty at the first hearing or in advance by post then the case will be adjourned to a trial date . This will usually be around 2-3 months but varies depending on the Courts commitments and whether we need to obtain expert evidence. The first hearing is included in the fixed fee as well as the trial date. The key work would be
-Initial attendance to take instructions and advise
-Going through the papers once these are available (shortly before or sometimes at the first hearing)
-Sometimes a further attendance to prepare in detail for the trial itself, shortly before the trial date
-Representation at Court for trial.
Will my case qualify for a fixed fee?
The vast majority of summary driving cases do. This means cases that can ony be dealt with in the magistrates court. Examples are alleged drug or drink driving, In charge, Speeding, Due care, Fail to stop. Legal aid is only very rarely available for summary driving offences as there is not usually a risk of imprisonment
Some driving offences, for example Dangerous Driving or of course accidents resulting in serious injury can go to the Crown Court and these “Either way” offences are therefore excluded as they are more complex. Legal aid may be available, or we can discuss costs on a case by case basis.
There are very rare cases that fall outside the fixed fees, simply because that are lengthy (trial listed over more than a day), or because the preparation involved is too considerable (over 5 hours) , or there are several defence witnesses to statement (more than 2). In the unlikely event your case falls into this category we will let you know at an early stage and give you a detailed estimate of the work involved and the cost.
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