Pricing, timescales and key stages for motoring offences

The vast majority of motoring offences are dealt with in the Magistrates Courts. Appeals go to the Crown Court. The most serious offences such as causing death by dangerous driving start in the Magistrates Court but will then be heard in the Crown Court.

Pricing

We charge for this type of work on an hourly basis. This is because all our clients are different and some require us to provide advice at a single meeting or on the telephone, and they may only need preliminary advice, whereas some require us to undertake full case preparation and arrange representation at Court. The hourly rates of our staff who may be working on your file are:-

Partners		£275.00
Solicitors with five years or more experience		£245.00
Administration Assistants/Paralegals		£110.00

The hourly rates of Legal Executives with similar experience are the same as those for solicitors

All fees attract VAT at the rate of 20%

A full discussion of the circumstances of your case and what has happened and advice in relation to plea, likely sentence and the representations that should be made to the court can usually be dealt with in a consultation of up to an hour.

Preparing a plea in mitigation for you can typically take 1 to 2 hours, depending upon the amount of work involved.

Full case preparation including dealing with the Court, the police or CPS and liaising with you is likely to take a further 1 to 3 hours depending upon the complexity of your case. This stage will include taking a witness statement from you, considering disclosure and any other evidence and providing advice, explaining the Court procedure to you so you know what to expect on the day of your hearing and the sentencing options available to the Court. We will conduct any further preparatory work and obtain further instructions from you if necessary and answer any follow-up queries you may have in the preparation of your case. We will discuss the outcome with you and if advice is required on an appeal, this will be carried out for an additional cost.

Arranging for representation at Court is likely to involve a further 1 to 2 hours work and the cost is likely to be in the region of £750-£1500 on the basis we instruct counsel to represent you. Junior counsel’s fees may be exempt from VAT. More experienced counsel will charge VAT. The instruction of counsel is a cost-effective way of securing representation for you at Court and draws on the particular expertise of counsel in presenting cases. More senior counsel will be more expensive. Counsel will charge an agreed fixed fee for representation at Court. We will obtain details and agree on this with you before instructing counsel.

The estimate of the time that your case will take and the indication of fees do not include:–

• taking statements from any witnesses
• instruction of expert witnesses if appropriate
• advice or assistance in relation to any appeal

 

Key Stages

The key stages of the matter are initial advice in discussion with you and consideration of the papers, advice on a plea in mitigation and preparation of the plea if you are pleading guilty by post or attending court in person, case preparation for a hearing and representation at Court.

The key stages are based on the presumption that you will enter a guilty plea

Timescale

We cannot provide an accurate time scale of when your case will be heard as this depends on the Court listing process. Most cases involving a guilty plea will conclude between 4 and 10 weeks from when you received the summons or were charged. The process will take longer if any adjournment is necessary.