Do You Need a Motor Lawyer?

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When most people are stopped by the police and given a ticket, or are caught on camera and receive a notice in the post, the majority pay the fine and take the points. However, motorists are beginning to realise that they can now challenge these notices, and more are choosing to do so.

Challenging your motoring offence

In England and Wales it is now possible to turn to a company like motoringoffencelawyers.com for targeted advice and help. In many cases, experienced motoring offence lawyers, like these, are able to successfully check, and challenge, the validity of an accusation.

Using insider knowledge to provide a good defence

A good driving offence solicitor knows the motoring law inside out. They understand how the evidence should be gathered and double-checked before fines or notices are issued. 

Using this knowledge, they will pick up situations where the proper procedures have not been followed. If the evidence used is flawed, or has not been properly collected, or handled, it opens the door for the charge against you to be dropped, or reduced. With the help of an experienced motoring lawyer, you can avoid being erroneously prosecuted.

Why you should always consider challenging motoring offences

When people are notified of driving offences, they tend to just shrug their shoulders and pay the fine, at least for the first couple of offences. They only really get worried when they have accrued enough points to be on the verge of losing their licence. 

At that point, many people realise that if they lose their licence for 12 months they are in real trouble. Their life will be turned upside down. 

For example, finding and holding down a job becomes a huge issue. In most areas, public transport is not adequate, so losing the use of your car could easily result in your losing your job. 

If you cannot legally drive, your employment opportunities are drastically reduced. In addition, many employers require staff to hold a full licence, if you do not they are often not interested in employing you.

It is all too easy to end up losing your licence. All you need to do is to get caught speeding several times in a 3 year period to tot up 12 points on your licence, which usually leads to a driving ban. Therefore, if you think you have been accused of a driving offence you did not commit, or have been given the highest possible punishment, it is always worth finding out if you can mount a legal challenge. 

Driving offences that could result in a criminal record

Some offences are considered more serious than others. If you are accused of one of these and are convicted in court, you can end up with a criminal record. Naturally, this makes you an even more unattractive proposition for prospective employers.

Add in the fact that driving offences mean that you will have to pay more for insurance, and you can see they are not something to be dealt with lightly. As a result, if you are accused of a driving offence it is usually wise to seek advice from driving offence solicitor. 

If you are in any doubt that having a criminal record arising from driving offences will have a lasting negative impact on your life, we suggest that you read this article. Doing so will help you to understand the consequences better, and help you to make an informed decision about how you deal with driving offences.

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The Qualities of a Good Personal Injury Lawyer

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When people are confronted with personal injury for themselves or for family members, they want a lawyer who gives them the legal support they need to get on with their lives. The way to achieve this is to find the best personal injury lawyers in Toronto. Lawyers who specialize in personal injury such as the lawyers at HSH Personal Injury Law will have in-depth knowledge of personal injury law and years of experience in the field. Insurance companies also know the lawyers in their region, and their success rates. This can make a difference whether the insurance company wants to take the risk of going to court.

The Client Needs to Feel Confident

Good lawyers are good communicators. They keep their clients in the loop and establish a good lawyer-client relationship. Clients must feel comfortable asking questions and must get clear answers in order to maintain trust in their lawyer. 

Specialization

Clients not only need a lawyer who specializes in personal injury cases, but also in other aspects of personal injury law. Many clients want to take a settlement offer and need to trust their lawyer to know if an offer is fair or not. The lawyer needs to be willing and able to take the case to court if necessary. If the insurance company sees that the lawyer has never tried a case in court, it may keep any settlement very low in the hope the lawyer will lose at trial. 

Success Is Key

Clients have the right to know if the personal injury lawyer they are considering hiring has a good success rate in his or her previous cases. They will not only want to know how many cases were won, but also how much compensation the lawyer was able to secure. Prospective clients may also ask to speak to the lawyer’s previous clients or look online for testimonials and comments about the lawyer in question. 

Tenaciousness

In order to feel confident, clients need to see that their lawyer will fight for them. Insurance companies generally keep records of lawyers who have won major settlements in court and are more likely to provide a higher settlement to avoid going to court against those lawyers. 

Questions a Client May Ask

• How much time will the lawyer actually spend on my case?

• Who will handle my case? Will it be handed over to paralegals?

• Does the office have adequate support staff?

• How will my lawyer communicate with me?

• Does the law office take every case or only ones it feels it can win? 

In order for lawyers to attract and keep good personal injury cases, clients need to feel valued by their lawyer and have confidence and trust in his or her abilities. Clients can immediately feel as if they are just another case or if their problems are being handled with integrity and compassion. When anyone is facing personal injury, his or her life is disrupted, maybe forever. They may not be able to think clearly and need to rely on their lawyer to organize the way forward. To give the client peace of mind at this time is a great gift, and to win a fair and sizable settlement or to win in court is the best beginning of their life after personal injury.

Drink driving charges: circumstances for defence

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You might think that being charged with drink driving means you will definitely be disqualified but you might be wrong. There may be a valid defence to your charge. However, you’ll need to make sure you contact a professional, such as those at http://drinkdrivesolicitor.com if you want to avoid conviction and keep your driving licence.

The ins and outs of drink driving charges can be difficult for people to navigate, but with the right instruction, you could find out that a charge could be defended.

So, what are some of the most common defences?

1. Failure to provide a specimen?

One of the most commonly contested charges is failure to provide a specimen of breath for analysis. This covers a situation where a person has been required to provide breath at the police station but has not been able to satisfy the requirements of the breath testing machine.

There are different machines used for obtaining breath specimens in England and Wales. These are the Lion Intoxilyser 6000, the Intoximeter EC/IR and the Camic Datamaster, and while each device measures a sample in a similar way, the requirements each machine needs to register a sample are different. Officers are not trained in relation to the different requirements of each machine meaning it could be the instructions given that resulted in the failure not the person accused.

If you have a lung problem which severely restricts your ability to breathe then you could have been unable to meet the requirements of the machine. The police have the power to require blood or urine instead but do not always do so. This could result in the dismissal of the charge against you warrants further discussion with your solicitor.

2. An error in procedure

With such strict and yet differing policies from place to place, errors in procedure can be fairly common. This occurs regularly where the police require specimens whilst the person accused is at a hospital, for example, where they are being treated following an accident

At hospital, only blood and urine specimens can be required for subsequent analysis at a laboratory. This means that the procedure to be followed is more complicated than at the police station and the scope for arguing that it has not been followed correctly is normally greater. The police must also ensure that the person from whom they are requiring samples is in a position to provide valid consent. If a head injury has been sustained this may not be the case and the sample could be ruled inadmissible by the Court. Similarly, if a person has not provided consent to the provision of a blood sample but was not in a position to fully understand the requirement they would be entitled to be found not guilty of the charge.

3. Faulty equipment

As with any machine used to provide evidence and scientific analysis, there is always the potential for it to give an incorrect reading. There has been a great deal of debate in relation to whether electromagnetic waves from mobile phones and police radios can interfere with the result of a breath test. Similarly, anomalies with the calibration of machines may be identified If you are surprised by a reading given (click here for drink driving limits), and feel strongly that the machine may have been faulty then your solicitor can help you to build a case for this.

The vital consideration with each of these circumstances is that you contact an expert drink driving solicitor as soon as possible. Have you had any experience of drink driving charges recently? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

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Book recommendation: 21st Century Solicitor by Steve Weiner

This might be news: success as a twenty-first century solicitor is not dependent on your technical aptitude alone. Sorry. As well as the basic requirements of understanding and applying the law superbly, you are also now expected to master a whole suite of so-called 'soft skills' -- communicating empathetically, acting commercially, writing carefully, presenting brilliantly, networking sensibly and building relationships enthusiastically. These skills might be called 'soft' by our industry, but the reality is that they are both incredibly hard and vitally important -- especially as a junior commercial lawyer keen to make a likeable, professional, commercial and lasting positive impression on those in control of your embryonic career. Written by a lawyer with unique experience as a commercial practitioner, trainer and law-firm voyeur, this no-nonsense 'how to' guide is an honest, punchy and modern look at all the skills you don't get taught at law school, yet are absolutely critical to achieving success from day one of your life as a twenty-first century solicitor. Available from Amazon.