Drink Driving Solicitors.

Drink driving is the act of driving or being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. It’s a serious offence that can lead to the loss of your licence, a driving ban, imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Being found guilty of a driving offence can also impact upon your employability, particularly if your job involves driving, and severely impact upon how much you pay annually on car insurance.

As with all criminal defence matters, the police need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that you were under the influence of alcohol at the time you were in charge of your car.

Even if this is proven, your solicitor may still be able to argue for a lesser punishment due to your circumstances, such as a reduction in your driving disqualification period or keeping your licence.

In all cases, our criminal defence solicitors can advise you from pre-charge stage all the way through to representing you at the police station and at court.

There are a number of legal defences for drink driving, including but not limited to:

• you not being the driver in charge of the vehicle at the time
• that you were not over the limit at the time or driving, even if you had consumed alcohol
• that you were responding to a genuine emergency
• faulty or badly-calibrated equipment was in use by the police
• having a reasonable excuse for not providing a specimen at the time it was requested

While these are legal defences, it does not mean that you won’t be convicted of drink driving if any of them apply, rather they may simply mitigate any potential penalty you receive.

Drink driving is an overarching term that includes several drink driving offence types and the defences you may be able to use will differ depending on the specific charges you face.

Many clients who attend court for the first time are understandably anxious and this can affect the quality of evidence you are able to provide. If you have never faced court previously, we’ll tell you exactly what to expect, the types of questions you will be asked, and what any subsequent steps will look like.

If found guilty, the court will issue a minimum 12-month driving disqualification, a fine and potentially a prison sentence in the most severe cases. There are a number of factors which can reduce the level of fine or length of imprisonment you face, but not the disqualification period:

Aggravating factors:

• any previous drink driving or other driving offences.
• causing damage to other vehicles or infrastructure.
• injury, harm or risk of harm to other people, including passengers in your vehicle.
• the age of any potential passengers or bystanders.
• evidence that your standard of driving was severely impacted by your being drunk.

Mitigating factors:

• not having a record of any previous relevant offences.
• having a genuine reason for driving while under the influence, for example due to a genuine emergency.
• the driver having a severe medical condition, mental impairment or disability.
• if the driver had intentionally chosen to drink and drive or if their drink had been spiked without their knowledge.
• the distance driven while intoxicated.
• whether the driver is the primary carer for any dependents.

While the driving ban cannot be reduced by any mitigating factors, the court may offer you a drink-driving rehabilitation scheme course at a cost of £250 which, if successfully completed, will reduce the ban period by a quarter. With the most common ban length being 12 months, this will reduce the disqualification period from 12 months to 9 months.

The length of a drink driving case depends on the severity of the offence, the choice of plea and how soon the courts have availability to hear your case.

From when you are charged to appearing in the Magistrates court could take anywhere from 4 to 8 months. If you plead guilty at this stage, the process will end, while a non-guilty plea will take longer as the court will need to schedule a subsequent trial.

For non-guilty pleas, typically you would expect to receive a judgment in 8 to 24 months of being charged.

We are currently unable to offer legal aid in any capacity as we lack the necessary legal aid certificate. We also don’t offer pro bono work at present.