Sep/090
Free Legal Advice
If you have been caught committing a motoring offence then you will need to act fast in order to be prepared. There are many areas of the law that are open to interpretation, everything needs to be completed correctly by the prosecuting officer otherwise you may well have grounds to contest the case.
A Special Reasons argument can be used to try to persuade the Magistrates, after giving evidence on oath, that it would not be appropriate in the circumstances to impose the penalty points. Special Reasons arguments are normally used in relation to avoiding bans in drink driving cases but, they can be used to avoid penalty points in relation to any of the endorsable offences.
When you argue Special Reasons you will have to provide evidence under oath that given the situation you were in it would be unfair to issue penalty points. The most common reason given is that they had an emergency i.e. there was a seriously injured passenger who they were taking to the hospital and exceeded the speed limit or ran a red light.
If the court deems that there were indeed Special Reasons in your circumstances, then you will not be issued any licence points. There aren't any particular definitions of Special Reasons, however you will have to prove that your situation was one of the following:
1. A mitigating or extenuating circumstance
2. It must not amount in law to a defence to the allegation
3. It must be directly connected to the commission of the offence
4. It must be something that the Court ought to take into consideration when deciding what punishment to impose.
Section 34 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act of 1988 is where you will find mention of the Special Reasons argument.