News
We provide a fixed fee of £350 plus VAT and disbursements based upon a guilty plea to Magistrates Court motoring offences such as drink driving, drug driving, failing to provide a specimen, using a mobile phone, careless driving and speeding.
The fee includes:
- 2 hours attendance/preparation
- Considering evidence
- Taking your instructions
- Providing advice on likely sentence
- Attendance and representation at a single hearing at the Magistrates Court
The fee does not include:
- Instruction of any expert witnesses
- Taking statements from any witnesses
- Advice or assistance in relation to a special reasons hearing
- Advice or assistance in relation to any appeal
The key stages of your matter are based on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date for your hearing:
- We will meet with you to obtain instructions on what happened
- We will consider initial disclosure, and any other evidence and provide advice
- We will arrange to take any witness statements if necessary (this will have an additional cost of £100 plus VAT)
- We will explain the court procedure to you so you know what to expect on the day of your hearing and the sentencing options available to the court
- We will conduct any further preparatory work, obtain further instructions from you if necessary and answer any follow-up queries you have
We cannot provide a timescale of when your hearing will take place, as this depends on the court listing for that day
- We will attend court on the day and meet with you before going the court. We anticipate being at court for half a day
- We will discuss the outcome with you. If advice is required on appeal this will carry an additional cost
Disbursements:
We will charge separately for these. Typically disbursements are for mileage and car parking. Depending on the location of the court and the length of the hearing these disbursements can fluctuate between £20 and £50.
Location of hearing:
The above fees are based upon hearings at courts in Essex and Herts. A further fee will be charged for hearings outside those areas.
Legal Aid:
We will always advise you on eligibility for Legal Aid and would be pleased to act for you on this basis should it be available.
Trials:
Should your matter proceed to trial then we will charge £900 plus VAT provided the trial lasts for no more than half a day. Our fee will include meeting with you and taking a statement and meeting with your witnesses. This fee does not cover any pre-trial hearings or adjourned hearings.
Should your trial last for a whole day our fee would be £1,500 plus VAT. This fee will include meeting with you and your witnesses and considering the evidence. However, it will not include any pre-trial hearings. Occasionally trials have to be adjourned due to lack of court time. In those circumstances, whether it is a half day or a full trial we would charge an additional £500 plus VAT for a further hearing.
Special reasons hearings:
Sometimes clients may wish to put forward special reasons for not being disqualified eg. in drink drive cases or no insurance cases. Since these matters are dealt with by way of evidence and witnesses at court, we would charge the same rates as we do for trials, based upon half day and whole day hearings.