Motoring Offences - Keeping You On The Road

Road traffic law is a complex and important area of the law. Penalties vary significantly from a few points on your licence, to hefty fines, automatic disqualification, loss of your licence, and even imprisonment. It’s therefore essential to consult a specialist driving offence solicitor to represent your best interests and protect your legal rights.

We understand that retaining your driving licence can be crucial to your life and career. We have the knowledge to look at your case in detail and to exploit any weaknesses in the prosecution case wherever possible.

Road traffic law is an area for specialists, and we have an unrivalled reputation in the Bournemouth and Dorset area for providing the highest quality of legal services to drivers.

Our motoring law solicitors have over 2 decades of experience successfully defending clients. Whether you are being prosecuted for driving with excess alcohol, being drunk in charge of a vehicle, failing to provide a specimen, speeding, or driving without due care and attention, we have the knowledge and expertise to help you.

To speak to one of our motoring offence solicitors in Bournemouth, get in touch with our offices today, or email mail@renshawderrick.co.uk.

What our motoring offence solicitors can do for you

We offer expert representation to motorists across Dorset. We meticulously assess each case for any procedural irregularities. Where it’s not possible to avoid endorsement or disqualification in some cases, we will review the evidence thoroughly and emphasise any mitigating circumstances to the court seeking to reduce the sentence you receive.

Our areas of motoring offences expertise include:

Speeding offences
Driving without a licence, insurance, or valid MOT
Dangerous driving, for example:
- Ignoring traffic lights and/or road signs
- Dangerous overtaking
- Racing
- Reading or looking at a map while driving
- Using a handheld phone while driving
Careless or inconsiderate driving, for example:
- Undertaking
- Mistakenly driving through red lights or missing road signs
- Cutting off other vehicles
- Forcing other drivers to give way
- Dazzling other drivers with undipped headlights
Causing death by driving offences, including:
- Causing death by dangerous driving
- Causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Causing death while driving with no insurance or licence
- Causing death while driving while disqualified
Causing serious injury by driving dangerously
Driving under the influence of drink or drugs
Failure to provide a specimen
Other drink and drug driving offences
Failure to provide information about a driver who is alleged to have committed an offence
Specific offence of driving while using a mobile phone or handheld device

I’ve received a Notice of Intended Prosecution from the police, what should I do?

You should contact us as soon as possible to discuss your case with one of our expert motoring offence solicitors before you return any documentation to the police.

We will ensure the Notice is legally compliant and advise whether you need to complete it. If the police have incorrectly filled out a Notice of Intended Prosecution, you may have a technical defence. However, only a skilled lawyer can tell you whether this is the case.

What should I do if the police want to speak to me about an alleged driving offence?

You should never speak to the police without a solicitor present to represent you. The police may try to frame your discussion as an informal chat. However, if you’re invited to the police station, you are highly likely to be cautioned before you’re interviewed, which allows the police and prosecuting authority to use anything you say as evidence against you in a prosecution.

Get in touch with our motoring offence solicitors as soon as possible to discuss your strategy going into the interview and to arrange representation to attend with you in order to protect your legal rights.

If you’ve been arrested for a driving offence, you have a right to legal advice while at the police station. Ask to contact us immediately.

Will I be disqualified from driving?

Whether you’re disqualified from driving will depend on the individual circumstances of your case.

For many minor driving offences such as speeding, you’ll only be disqualified if you tot up 12 points on your licence within 3 years. In these cases, you’ll be banned for 6 months.

For other offences, including drink and drug driving, you will receive an automatic driving ban of between 1-3 years.

For driving offences causing death, you will receive an automatic ban and you will be required to retake your driving test before your licence can be returned.

What other penalties are there for driving offences?

Other penalties you could receive include:

Fines – these range from fixed penalty notices, which can be offered by police as an alternative to prosecution, to unlimited fines in the Crown Court
Prison sentence – ranging between 3 months and 14 years in prison

You will also be required to declare your conviction to your insurer, which is likely to make your car insurance sky rocket. You may also have difficulty getting any job which requires you to drive.

Wherever possible, we will argue “Special Reasons” or “Exceptional Hardship” to try and convince the judge to hand down a lighter sentence, limiting any excessive damage to your life.

Why choose our motoring offence solicitors?

We are one of the leading criminal defence firms in the Bournemouth and Dorset area. Whatever the seriousness of the allegation facing you, we have the necessary knowledge and expertise to give you the best possible chance of being acquitted or released without charge.

We guarantee that your case will always be handled by a solicitor with specific expertise in motoring offences. Our team is headed up by Dwayne Lewis, a partner of our firm with years of experience as a Court and Police Station Duty Solicitor.

Our team also includes lawyers with Higher Court Rights, meaning we can support and represent you at every stage of the criminal justice process.

As a firm, we are accredited by the Law Society in Criminal Litigation for our high level of criminal defence services and our accredited members include Dwayne Lewis, Selina Goddard, and Ewa Russell.

Renshaw Derrick is independently regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The following members of the team carry out this work and their experience can be found below:

Dwayne Lewis (25 years PQE in crime including motoring law). Dwayne is supervised by Ronnie Broit.
Kate Green (16 years PQE in crime including motoring law). Kate is supervised by Dwayne Lewis.
Selina Goddard ( 24 years PQE in crime including motoring law). Selina is supervised by Dwayne Lewis and Kate Green.
Debra Scudamore (21 years PQE in crime including motoring law AND FORMER magistrate’s Court Clerk). Debra is supervised by Dwayne Lewis and Kate Green.
Tracey Watson (23 years PQE in crime including motoring law). Tracey is supervised by Dwayne Lewis and Kate Green.
James Diamond (trainee solicitor). James is supervised by Dwayne Lewis and Kate Green.
Mark Price (40 years PQE in crime including motoring law). Mark is supervised by Dwayne Lewis and Kate Green.