Motoring solicitors

Have you been caught speeding, charged with drink, drug or dangerous driving or any other road traffic offence? 

Dealing with committing a motoring offence can be a difficult time. At David Gray, our specialist motoring solicitors have extensive experience in dealing with driving and road traffic offences like speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and careless driving. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields, our motoring solicitors are experts in motoring law and dealing with minor and major motoring offences and can provide relevant legal advice if you have been accused of a motoring offence and need police station advice, Magistrates’ Court solicitors or representation at Crown Court.

By working with our team of expert motoring solicitors at David Gray, you can be assured that we will provide you with the specialist support you need to represent you and your case.

What can our motoring solicitors help you with?

At David Gray, we have a team of expert motoring solicitors with many years of experience in conducting motoring law trials and providing clients with legal advice across a range of motoring offence cases.

• Within our team, we have solicitors with experience in all areas of road traffic offences: Drink driving solicitors: our drink driving solicitors can provide legal advice and guidance if you have been arrested or charged with driving over the legal alcohol limit. Driving, or attempting to drive, over the limit typically carries a mandatory disqualification from driving for at least 12 months and the court may also consider punishments ranging from a fine to a prison sentence.
• Drug driving solicitors: if you are found to have a controlled drug in your system, like cocaine, cannabis, ketamine or MDMA, , you will face a mandatory disqualification from driving for a minimum of 12 months. The court may also consider punishments ranging from a fine to a prison sentence.
• Speeding offence solicitors: if you have been charged with driving over the speed limit, or speeding, magistrates can impose penalty points on your licence or disqualification from driving, but our speeding offence solicitors can support your case.
• Careless driving solicitors: an offence under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act, careless driving, or driving without due care an attention, covers a wide range of poor driving for which you can receive penalty points on your licence or an outright disqualification from driving. Careless driving is different to dangerous driving.
• Dangerous driving solicitors: if you are convicted of dangerous driving, you will be disqualified for at least 12 months and required to sit an extended re-test. If you are convicted, the court has the power to impose a custodial sentence of up to two years.
• Driving without insurance solicitors: if you use or permit the use of a motor vehicle without insurance on a public road, you have committed a serious motoring offence which can result in fixed penalties of six penalty points and a £300 fine, but if the case proceeds to court, you could face an unlimited fine, six to eight penalty points and a driving ban.
• Failure to identify driver solicitors: when the registered keeper of a vehicle or any other person does not provide details of who was driving at the time of an offence, you are not complying with Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which could result in prosecution in court.
• Exceptional hardship solicitors: if you accumulate 12 penalty points in any three-year period by ‘totting up’, court guidelines state that an immediate ban of six months or more should be imposed but before considering this, the court will give you the opportunity to raise an exceptional hardship argument to prevent a ban.
• Using a mobile phone while driving: it is illegal to hold and use a phone or any device that can send or receive data when driving. You may be at risk of losing your licence or being disqualified from driving if you are caught and do not seek legal advice from specialist motoring solicitors.

You can also be prosecuted with driving offences including drink driving on an e-scooter or Neuron scooter.

At David Gray, our motoring solicitors have worked with numerous clients to offer legal advice and expert support to individuals who have been charged with a motoring offence. With experience in all areas of motoring law and road traffic offences, we can support you and ensure you receive the outcome you deserve.

How will you know if you are facing a motoring offence?

If you are found to have committed a road traffic offence, including careless driving or dangerous driving, you may receive a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) which requires you to provide driver details at a certain time. If you have been charged with a motoring offence, you will receive a single justice procedure notice and you will have certain options available to you when responding to the notice.

Ignoring either of these notices can lead to prosecution for the road traffic offence and potentially face a separate charge for failing to provide the information. If you ignore a Single Justice Procedure Notice, the magistrate will make a decision about your case without your input, meaning you are found guilty and may be sentenced in your absence

If you receive either of these notices, or are pulled over by the police, you must seek legal advice from specialist motoring solicitors as soon as possible. Our motoring offence solicitors at David Gray can support you regardless of whether you have been arrested by the police on the roadside or if you receive a notice in the post.

Why should you seek legal advice from expert motoring solicitors?

In our experience, early legal advice from motoring solicitors can be crucial in determining the outcome of motoring offences, including road traffic offences.

Regardless of whether you have been found using a mobile phone while driving, driving without insurance or have failed to identify a driver, you should obtain legal advice from our motoring solicitors at David Gray to challenge evidence, build defences, mitigate penalties and secure a favourable result, like avoiding disqualification, reducing points on your licence or achieving an exceptional hardship claim.

Working with one of David Gray’s motoring solicitors can help you reduce potential fines or penalty points and increase the chance of keeping your driving licence. Our motoring solicitors can provide legal advice and support from receiving an initial letter from the police or a notice to an investigation in court.

Road traffic offences and exceptional hardship

Many motorists are familiar with the penalty points system. If you accrue 12 points on your driving licence within a three-year period, you are at serious risk of being disqualified from driving and lose your licence.

However, at David Gray, we understand that losing your driving licence can have a severe impact on the daily life of yourself and others. In some scenarios, our motoring solicitors may be able to prove to the court that you should not be disqualified from driving as this would cause exceptional hardship.

Your exceptional hardship claim may be approved if:

• you need your car for work
• you need your car to support necessary finances, like your mortgage
• you need your car to care for someone who requires you to drive them

If the court does find exceptional hardship, you will not lose your licence but points will remain on your licence. Our exceptional hardship solicitors are part of our motoring law team, and they can support you if you are facing disqualification from driving but require your vehicle for financial reasons or to support somebody else.

Contact us

At David Gray, our team of motoring solicitors have many years of experience in working with clients to achieve favourable results in regard to motoring offences.

We are based in Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields, and we support clients across the North East and throughout the UK. We offer telephone consultations at short notice with our motoring solicitors; call us on 0191 232 9547 to speak with one of our expert motoring offence solicitors to see how we can support you.

We also offer appointments either in-person at one of our offices or online, via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

For out of hours emergency advice, call 07764 929487. We can attend police interviews 24 hours a day, and at short notice.

Newcastle:

56 Westgate Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 5XU

South Shields:

142 Fowler Street, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE33 1PZ

Motoring Solicitors FAQs