Defence Costs
On 1 October 2012, the Government will limit the recovery of defence costs to the legal aid rates. Which means, when the CPS pursue a worthless prosecution and a privately paying defendant obtains an acquittal, he or she can only recover from the Government what the lawyer would have been…
Fines Increase
Outlined in a Department for Transport consultation document, motorists caught offending face an increase in penalties from £60 to £90. These fine are directed toward drivers who occupy outer lanes when the inside lane of a carriageway is empty, and pushing into an orderly queue of traffic. From my personal…
Recent Interpretation of Duty to Give Informtion
Recently the High Court liberally interpreted the provision requiring a vehicle keeper to provide details of a driver. This is good news for vehicle owners unable to reasonably ascertain a driver’s identity when required to provide details under section 172 Road Traffic Act 1988. Atkinson v DPP.
Prosecution weaknesses
There is nothing certain about the outcome of a criminal trial. It involves a complex matrix of evidence, procedure and law applied to the uncertainty of constantly shifting sands of live witnesses and changing circumstances. There is no doubt that the skill of the lawyer, in this combatant arena, will…
£100 speed fines ‘will be tax on drivers’
According to the front page of the Daily Telegraph: “Motorists face a huge increase in speeding fines to as much as £100 to help fill a funding gap for victims of crime, Kenneth Clark has disclosed. Standard £60 fines could increase by almost 70%.”… “Ministers hope to raise around £30…
Speeding totter keeps licence
A surgeon kept his driving licence despite being caught driving at twice the speed limit, taking him up to 12 penalty points, according to the Daily Telegraph 25/1/12. Magistrates decided that the impact of a driving ban on his patients would be too great. This is an example of exceptional…
Duty to give information
Duty to give information Road Traffic 1988 s. 172. R. (Purnell) v Snaresbrook Crown Court In a recent driving case, the registered keeper of a vehicle successfully appealed against the ruling of a Crown Court judge. The Crown Court had applied the wrong legal test when interpreting the duty imposed…