A dangerous driving offence is one which can be heard either in the Magistrates Court or the Crown Court.

Your first appearance would be at the Magistrates Court where you will be asked what your plea is if it is a guilty plea the court will decide whether their sentences powers are sufficient if they think your case is so serious they will send your case to the Crown Court.

If it is a Not Guilty plea they will decide whether your case can be heard in the Magistrates Court or the Crown Court. Representations can be made on your behalf but the court will take the prosecution case at its highest and make their decision on the facts presented by the Crown Prosecution Service. If it is serious it is likely that they will send your case to the Crown Court for trial.

If they decide that it is suitable to be dealt with by the Magistrates Court they will ask you where you want it to be heard. You can either choose the Magistrates Court or elect the Crown Court for your trial to be heard.

Your case will then be adjourned for your trial either in the Magistrates or to a Plea and Trial management hearing in the Crown Court where it will then be set down for trial.

The procedure is complicated and there are difficult decisions for you to make. This is why you need expert dangerous driving specialists to help you through this process and ensure that you are making the decisions which are right for you.

Sometimes drivers know that what they have done was dangerous. Sometimes they think it was dangerous but actually it could fall within a definition of careless driving. Others feel they have not committed any offence at all.

You need to obtain advice from a solicitor who is an expert in dangerous driving as early as possible in the proceedings. Dealing with the Crown Prosecution Service can be extremely frustrating particularly when trying to get physical evidence such as CCTV. We are persistent and ensure that every piece of evidence is examined. If necessary we get experts to analyse CCTV. We keep your case under constant review.

We will go through any possible defence establishing what evidence we can use to corroborate your version of events.

After considering all of that we will be able to give you advice on your options and your chances of success if you were to go to trial

Call one of our specialist dangerous driving solicitors for free initial advice.

Dangerous driving is a serious offence with heavy penalties so you should not leave anything to chance. Contact a specialist solicitor straight away to discuss your options and the best way forward.

It is likely that as part of the investigation you will be called to interview. You will be entitled to a duty solicitor to represent you which is free of charge but these will not be specialists and are not usually pro-active with the police. We attend police station interviews regularly and often succeed in nipping the case in the bud because we are proactive.

We have clients who have been worried about a dangerous driving charge having sleepless nights who, after we have attended interview with them and made representations to the police have been offered a driver improvement course READ MORE ON DRIVER IMPROVEMENT COURSES

Whilst that will not happen in all cases it demonstrates how we can achieve so much more for you as a client. You often hear that you should always say “no comment” in interview and that is often the advice from some duty solicitors, however it is not always good advice. We know when to say “no comment” and when to answer questions. You need to make sure that you are well prepared for interview and do not answer questions in a way that will incriminate you or give the wrong impression. Duty solicitors will not spend time with you before the interview as a rule and spend only a few minutes with you after speaking to the police. We spend time with you well before interview as well as after speaking to the police. READ MORE ABOUT POLICE STATION INTERVIEWS

If you are facing such a serious offence you need the get the best representation as early as possible.

Do you have an interview date and need representation.

For a charge of dangerous driving to succeed, the prosecution must prove to the satisfaction of the court that your driving fell far below the standard expected of a competent driver and it would be obvious to a competent driver that the manner of your driving would be dangerous. (S 2. Road Traffic Act 1988.)

Examples:-

- Driving aggressively

- Racing

- Overtaking into the path of oncoming vehicles

- Driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition

- Ignoring traffic signs or signals ie running a traffic light at a busy junction

- Driving when unfit (unable to see clearly, being sleepy, with an injury)

- Driving whilst being avoidably distracted, for example by: using a mobile phone, reading, turning to check your children, reading a map, lighting a cigarette or fiddling with the in car audio system

Unsure if your driving was dangerous? Discuss your case with one of our specialist dangerous driving solicitors FREE OF CHARGE.

Dangerous driving cases can vary in complexity from a Magistrates plea to a Crown Court trial. The evidence can be relatively simple whilst other cases have numerous witnesses and require expert evidence. We will consider the complexity of your case and the likely progression period and agree a fee before commencing work so you will have peace of mind knowing exactly what your financial liabilities will be.

We stage our fees in line with the court procedure ie Magistrates plea/plea and trial management hearing/trial in Crown Court . Read more about the court procedure here. This way if we persuade the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the case or accept a lesser plea you will only have paid for the service up to that point.

If you are acquitted you may get some or all of your costs paid by applying for what is known as a defendant costs order.

We offer very competitive fees without reducing the quality in our service if you want an idea as to how much your case will cost. Call one of our expert dangerous driving solicitors to discuss your case and the costs.

You may have legal expenses cover on your insurance which may contribute to your fees.

Most legal expenses insurers will try to appoint one of their panel solicitors to deal with your case to keep their costs down, but your policy will definitely enable you freedom of choice to appoint Auriga Advocates. You should note that the panel solicitors are often experts in personal injury or general crime most are not specialist road traffic offence lawyers so do not be fobbed off with one from a panel.

A dangerous driving prosecution is too serious for you to entrust your fate to non-experts who may be competent to deal with basic factual points in your case, but will certainly not offer the breadth of expertise and knowledge of the dangerous driving solicitors at Auriga.

If you are unsure as to what to discuss with your insurers one of our legal team will be more than happy to liaise with your insurers about the possibility of their funding your representation. This is something we can discuss with you when you get in touch.

Careless driving or driving without due care and attention or Driving without reasonable consideration carries a penalty of between 3 – 9 points and a fine of up to £2500. There is a discretionary disqualification for the most serious offences. It is an offence under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988

The definition of careless is when your standard of driving “falls below that of a careful competent driver”.

For a charge of dangerous driving to succeed, the prosecution must prove to the satisfaction of the court that your driving fell far below the standard expected of a competent driver and it would be obvious to a competent driver that the manner of your driving would be dangerous. (S 2. Road Traffic Act 1988.) It carries a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment and a minimum 12 month ban with an extended re-test.

This will depend on the opinion of the magistrates or the jury. It will mean different things to different people. Many of the examples given for careless and dangerous overlap eg running a traffic light. This could be anything from a contravening a red light offence, careless driving offence or dangerous driving depending on the circumstances.

There is a grey area of law between Careless driving and Dangerous and it takes a skilled advocate to persuade a court/police/CPS that a case fits into the Careless bracket and not the dangerous.

We have outstanding success in reducing dangerous driving charges to careless

We may be able to achieve this prior to any charge being laid if we are involved at the police investigation stage or post charge at the Magistrates Court which would save significantly on fees.

If you are unsure where your case is really a careless offence discuss it with one of our legal team now for clarity and assurance.

Poor driving such as speeding, not paying attention and taking risks could fall within the ambit of a number of motoring offence and that is no different for dangerous driving. Often, we can offer alternative guilty pleas to lesser offences which carry lower penalties, disqualifications or no disqualification at all. Whether we can do this will depend on the nature of the driving alleged.

Alternative, offences could be

1. Careless driving

2. Driving without reasonable consideration*

3. Not being in proper control

4. Using a mobile phone

5. Racing