Why Use Solicitors Specialising In Drink Driving?

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Why use solicitors specialising in drink driving?

Solicitors specialising in drink driving will get you the best possible outcome from any related charges bought against you. But how do they do this?

In short, because they deal often exclusively with drink driving – or sometimes with all motoring and road traffic – offences. They have done this before. They know what will work and what won't as they aim to free you from these allegations.

Here are the reasons why drink driving specialist solicitors are always going to be worth hiring over any free duty solicitor or general practice lawyer you might find:

Why Use Drink Driving Specialist Solicitors?

1) They Know The Law (And They've Done This Before)

One of the most stressful and worrying things about being charged with drink driving is not understanding how the UK legal system works and what the best thing to do really is.

A specialist lawyer will be able to support you throughout the process. They can explain what will happen next and what you need to prepare yourself for.

They will also be able to tell you what your situation actually is and the approaches that it is possible to try to avoid any potential driving ban – or possibly get your case dropped altogether.

2) They Won't Just Try To Mitigate (They'll Aim To Get Your Case Dropped)

The likely recommendation you'll receive from the free duty solicitor (that many courts and police stations have available) or a general practice solicitor is that you should plead guilty as soon as possible and then try to mitigate the sentence you receive.

For many people, this simply isn't enough. If you are found guilty of drink driving you face a mandatory driving ban of at least 12 months. This can overturn lives, causing people to lose jobs or take a heavy hit to their income.

It is true that there are some cases where pleading guilty as soon as possible is the best approach. However, it certainly isn't the only strategy

available. A specialist will:

Insist on disclosure – force the prosecution to disclose evidence against you, possibly revealing they don't have any – or, at least, not enough to convict you.
Investigate equipment – such as the breathalyser used to take your breath sample and confirm that it recorded the correct result. If equipment is faulty, it is likely to mean the entire case against you collapses.
Check procedure – one of the most common ways drink driving cases get dropped before they reach court is because a specialist solicitor identifies a procedural mistake in evidence gathering or case handling.

3) They Know Which Defences Work (And Which Do Not)

If there really is no way to secure your acquittal without going to court, a specialist solicitor will be able to explain the strongest defence they can put forward for you. They have done this before – perhaps dozens of times – and they know what will work and what won't.

Many people wrongly assume that they might be able to claim they had to go and visit a dying relative and get some sort of leniency from the court.

This is not the case.

There are only a small number of justified defences and “reasonable excuses” that the courts consider when taking into account the facts surrounding your case. These might include:

The “hip flask” defence – covers situations where you took a drink after you stopped driving but before the police tested you. This is colloquially known as the “hip flask” defence.
The private land defence – when you were on private land that could not be easily accessed by the general public.
The spiked drinks defence – if your drink was spiked with extra alcohol without your knowledge it can be grounds for dismissal or minimal sentence if you can prove you would have been under the limit if you had drunk the drink without the spike.
The duress of circumstance defence – if you genuinely believed that you were under serious threat of violence or death (and a sober person would have concluded the same), it may be a legitimate reason you decided to drink drive.
The medical emergency defence – though the circumstances that count for this are extremely limited, a genuine medical emergency might be a sufficient reason if provably dire.

No matter the defence that applies in your particular case though, you never want to give the magistrate the impression that this is a sob story. This requires professional representation from an experienced specialist drink driving lawyer who knows how to present your defence on your behalf.

Talk With Solicitors Specialising In Drink Driving Near You

Don't rely on an online search for “solicitors specialising in drink driving near me”. Chat with proven specialists in the field before you decide who the best choice to defend you against your drink driving charge really is.

Talk your situation over with one of DFR Solicitors' experts today.

Please call us now on 033 03411690 or Click to make an Online Enquiry.

Our success statistics

95% Success Rate From West Yorkshire, Manchester, Cheshire or London we have a 95% success rate in defending motorists who have failed to identify drivers on a s 172 Notice received by police. S 172 places burden upon registered keeper to disclose driver details, on occasions this may not be possible, we have used our experience and expertise in successfully defending these type of cases.
Exceptional Hardship, 95% If you are in danger of reaching 12 or more penalty points, then ordinarily you will under risk of losing your licence, unless you can establish exceptional Hardship. We have an outstanding record in presenting these applications before the Court and over the last 4 years we have not lost a single case. We are exceptional in presenting exceptional hardship Arguments.
Special Reasons Special reasons differ from exceptional hardship, as this is mitigation in respects of the offence and not offender. We have successfully presented hundreds of applications where the client has been guilty but not disqualified as we have successfully presented special reasons.
Drink Driving Trials, 87% We have successfully defended 81% of all drink driving cases we have dealt with, with a combination of our knowledge and expertise and the use of reliable experts in the majority of the cases we have been able to establish that the prosecution cases have been defective evidentially.
No Insurance Trial, 92% No Insurance is strict liability offence, you either have valid insurance or you do not, however in some circumstances you may have relied upon information from your employer or a third party In these cases we have successfully defended motorists, allowing them to continue with their daily lives.
Overall Trials, 81% We are specialist motoring Solicitors and our expertise extends to all areas of motoring Law. We have a very high overall success rate when defending motorists particularly when the case has gone to a Trial, from speeding, using mobile telephone, to Death by dangerous driving.