Road Traffic Offences - A Guide for the Prosecution & Defence

Introduction

Road traffic law is a specialised area with an array of offences and legislation in relation to them.

You may be a person prosecuting road traffic offences in the Magistrates’ Court or the Crown Court or a defence solicitor representing private clients or acting as the Court Duty Solicitor.

This course has been written by a person with more than 35 years of experience of dealing with these matters.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• An analysis of the guidance published by the Sentencing Council in relation to drug driving
• The Schedule of permissible limits in relation to drugs - including amphetamine
• The law in relation to both drugs and alcohol extracted from the Road Traffic Act 1988 - Sections 4 - 7A - a consideration of the statutory defences
• Penalty points - the magic number and the consequences that may or may not flow from acquiring them!
• Current case-law from the High Court - especially those cases concerning disclosure of material in road traffic cases - really useful stuff for prosecutors to know!
• Disqualifications from driving as a sentence
• Disqualifications, both mandatory and discretionary as ancillary orders to a sentence - starting points and finishing points
• Disqualifications until re-test - an area fraught with misunderstanding
• Driving whilst disqualified - some things you never knew about this offence
• Careless and inconsiderate driving
• Driving whilst not being in proper control of your vehicle - including, using hand-held devices
• Aggravated vehicle taking - an analysis of how it all went horribly wrong in the case of Maxwell and R [2017]
• ‘Causation’ and the important cases of R v Hughes and R v Taylor (Appellant)
• Road traffic issues in the Youth Court including the very important case of B and Leeds Crown Court and the Crown Prosecution Service
• Appeals and applications for early removal of disqualification
• The definitions of ‘driving’, ‘attempting to drive’ and being ‘in charge’
• Commencing proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court - Rule 7 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 (as amended)
• Section 35A and 35B of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988
• Costs - who is paying for all of this?