Drinking Driving

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If you have been charged with drink driving, it’s important to seek specialist legal help immediately. This is a serious offence carrying a minimum, mandatory 12-month disqualification or in worse cases, prison. An expert drink driving solicitor at Watson Woodhouse will assess your case to determine a potential defence. Please contact us to discuss your circumstances today.

Whether you receive a summons or postal requisition with a court date or are charged by the police directly to Court, we’re here to help through this difficult situation.

Drink Driving Guilty Plea

In this instance, your case may be concluded upon first appearance. Exceptional hardship or special reason arguments may mean a court adjournment for a hearing in 4 to 8 weeks. During this time we will provide the best legal advice, discuss procedures, take instruction and obtain evidence.

Our fees when pleading guilty to drink driving are determined by how straightforward arguments are to mitigate the sentence.

Guilty Plea Costs

The majority of drink driving cases are charged at a fixed fee of £350-£750 plus VAT at 20% of £70-£150, a total of £420 – £900, which will be discussed with you prior to instruction. Travel expenses are in addition to this cost. Should cases become more complex, this fee will be adjusted accordingly, based on time. Fixed costs do not include any expert reports, tracing witnesses or a guilty plea.

Drink Driving Not Guilty Plea

Pleading not guilty to a drink driving offence is also charged at a fixed fee and based upon the length and complexity of the trial. This will be affected by:

Number of witnesses
If you’ve been charged with more than one offence
Expert evidence

Where a trial is straightforward lasting up to an hour and a half, costs are £500 plus VAT at 20% of £100, a total of £600. For those at half a day, it’s £750 plus VAT at 20% of £150, a total of £900 with a full day’s fee of £1000 plus VAT at 20% of £200, a total of £1200. Such costs may increase should a defence witness require tracing and interviewing, expert evidence is needed or an unusual law aspect arises.

Drink Driving Court Process

Via summons receipt, postal requisition with a court date, or charges from police direct to court, we’re here to support you. A trial is usually listed two to four months after the first appearance or the not guilty plea is indicated by the Single Justice Procedure notice (varies from court to court). You’ll receive detailed initial advice and upon instruction, obtain evidence and represent you at the first court hearing. Dealing with the case in its entirety we’ll guide you throughout.

We are here to help

Call us for a FREE and confidential consultation with a specialist solicitor today on 01642 247 656; alternatively, complete our online contact form, and one of our team will be in touch.

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I would 100% recommend this practice. Andrew was fantastic, very efficient, full of good advice and fully represented my interests. Whenever I contacted the office the staff were very accommodating and professional. I will soon be going back to have a new will made and consider them now to be “my” solicitors. I am also grateful to the estate agent that pointed me in this direction.

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A big thank you to Richard and the team at Watson Woodhouse. Your professionalism, knowledge and positive attitude made all the difference and ensured my house sale completed. You guided me through some complex issues and your advice was always first class

Watson Woodhouse looked after the sale of one house and the purchase of another. It was an excellent service. Alisha Stevenson made what is normally a stressful situation bearable with her professionalism. She is easy to talk to, She made herself available when she could and always returned a call when she couldn’t. Good value for money.

We used Watson Woodhouse for the sale of our home and purchase of our new bungalow. We would like to thank Katie Gibson, Jackie Howard and Livvie-Mae Pruden for all their help and support during this long process which was delayed by an issue with our vendor’s solicitors. The ladies acted with patience and kindness and were totally professional at all times. Thank you all so much.

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Call us on 01642 247 656 or request a callback for further information, or start a claim and one of our specialistDrinking Driving lawyers will be in touch.

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