Road Traffic Law: Driving Disqualifications

Most people in our society are heavily reliant on their cars for transporting family members, getting to work, shopping, and socialising. For those people that are prosecuted for driving offences, unfortunately could face having their driving licence revoked by the court. Being disqualified from driving is one of the many sentencing options available to the court, but it can be avoided.

Mandatory and Discretionary Disqualification
The defining factor as to whether a motorist can avoid disqualification depends on whether the disqualification is mandatory or discretionary. For the majority of cases disqualification is an option which the court can use at its own discretion, so if you can convince the court not to take this course of action then you could keep your license. In certain circumstances the law requires that there is a disqualification period (this is not the court's decision). To avoid a driving ban in these cases you will need to demonstrate a defence or special reason why you need to keep your driving licence.

Possible Defences and Special Reasons
When facing prosecution for a motoring offence it is advisable to establish a defence for the charge against you. If your defence holds in court you will be found not guilty and will go free. There are several different defences which often apply to motoring offences, these can include:
• Self defence - e.g. where a motorist hits an attacker with their car;
• Necessity - e.g. where a motorist is speeding in order to drive a sick person to hospital;
• Automatism - e.g. where a motorist suffers a blackout which causes them to lose control of their vehicle;

The special reason cannot be classified as a defence to the charge against you and it does not mean that you will be found not guilty. The special reason will need to relate to the actual offence and not to the motorist involved; for example, if a motorist drives a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but was unaware of doing so because their drink was spiked. This type of reason could avoid a driving ban.

Mitigation
In some cases where there is no legitimate defence or special reason and if the disqualification is not mandatory, the motorist may be able to convince the court not to disqualify them.
Once the motorist has been found guilty and before sentence is passed they will be given the opportunity to enter a plea of mitigating circumstances. In other words they can give the court an explanation why it should give the driver another chance and give them a lesser sentence. One of the factors which a motorist can raise in their mitigation is the impact which the punishment would have on them. If a motorist can show that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship they may be able to avoid the penalty. An example of this would be where the motorist would lose their job without a driving licence, or where the motorist is disabled and therefore more reliant on driving than most other people.

Penalty Points
Even if you have only ever committed minor motoring offences, you could still find yourself facing driving disqualification, if you have 12 or more penalty points on your driving licence. Disqualification for exceeding this limit is not mandatory, and in these cases specialist legal advice may be able to assist you in keeping your licence. On top of this the more points you have the more your insurance will cost.

A specialised road traffic law solicitor will be able to review your case and identify any defences, special reasons or other circumstances which could be raised in mitigation. These issues can involve very complex technicalities and legal aspects which would be missed by someone who was not qualified and experienced in legal representation.
The police are required by law to follow strict rules when investigating offences and gathering evidence so they can ensure the law is applied fairly. When these rules and regulation have not been followed, some key evidence may be inadmissible or the court may refuse to allow the prosecution to continue. A specialist motoring solicitor will be aware of every single legal technicality and have the skills to ensure that your defence takes advantage of every possible outcome.

I am a legal writer covering advice on topics of law, for further text and similar works about road traffic law I suggest you visit lawontheweb.co.uk.