Totting Up Offences
Losing a license can have a devastating effect on your family life and mobility. Our specialist Road Traffic Solicitors are well-known for boldly and successfully defending our clients to ensure you have every opportunity of keeping your licence.
If you have points on your licence and you are faced with a new charge, contact us now. We will advise you if your licence is at stake and how we can help you protect it. You can get in touch with our Road Traffic Defence Lawyers today via the online enquiry form.
What is Totting Up?
The law concerning totting up is contained in section 35 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988. The Act outlines that if someone is convicted of an offence and receives penalty points, and as a result, the total number of active points on their licence reaches 12 or more, they must be disqualified from driving by the court. The person must be disqualified for at least six months, however if the person has been disqualified before, the period may be longer.
Totting Up Defences in Paisley & Greenock, Scotland
There are two possible defences to disqualification for totting up in which the court may decide not to disqualify you or to impose a shorter, fixed ban of fewer than 56 days. They are:
The Exceptional Hardship Defence
Under the exceptional hardship defence, you may be able to argue that disqualification from driving would cause you exceptional and unfair hardship. For example, if your business or livelihood depends on being able to drive.
To successfully argue exceptional hardship, your circumstances must be out of the ordinary. Generally, the courts are quite strict with what circumstances will be accepted under the exceptional hardship defence but tend to be more lenient where the hardship affects a third party.
The Special Reasons Defence
The special reasons defence relates to the offence itself. If the offence was committed as a result of a ‘special reason’, the court does not have to endorse penalty points or disqualify you from driving. The court may also reduce the minimum disqualification period.
Common examples of special reasons include breaking the speed limit or failing to notice road signals in a medical emergency, or if the driver was facing the threat of injury or violence. Another special reason may be where you are found to be driving without insurance, but you had received assurance that you were properly insured, for example, by an employer.
Other Factors to Consider
Under Section 29 of the Act, points on your licence that have been endorsed more than three years before a new offence has been committed will be discounted. The relevant date is the date the offence was committed, not the date of conviction or the date the points were endorsed.
If you are convicted of more than one offence during the same incident, the court must consider the points they would impose for each offence. The court will then impose the number of points for whichever offence carries a higher number of points. However, in exceptional circumstances, it is possible to receive points for all offences individually.
If you are disqualified for totting up, your licence will be wiped clean of the points that have been endorsed and, after the period of disqualification, you will have a clean licence.
If you need advice about totting up, contact our experienced Road Traffic Defence Lawyers today.
Contact our Totting Up Road Traffic Lawyers Paisley & Greenock Today
Our Road Traffic Lawyers in Paisley and Greenock have decades of experience and success with road traffic offences, including totting up, dangerous driving, careless driving, drink driving, speeding, driving without insurance, and driving with a mobile phone. We cover Glasgow, Greenock, Port Glasgow, Kilmacolm, Gourock, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Barrhead, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire & every police station and court in Scotland.
Contact us as soon as you have been charged, received a fixed penalty or been involved in an accident for free, initial legal advice 24 hours per day. Call us in Paisley on 01418896458 or Greenock on 01475888286 or fill out our online form and we will call you back shortly.
