Advice Needed

[Worried User]

Hi,

On 19/06/15 I was stopped by police after they said I almost "clipped" their wing mirror. They asked if I'd had a drink (after saying they could smell it) and I admitted I had just had 2 & a half pints of lager after finishing work. I was taken to a nearby police station and breathalyzed and blew 86.

I spent a few hours in the cells after which I was charged with drink driving and told I am to appear at magistrates court on 14/07/15.

I am 29 years old, I work full time, this is my first offence and the first time I have ever had any dealings with the police. I have been driving around 6 years and have never had so much as a bump or scrape.

I am so embarrassed about what I did and thoroughly regret it.

I have spoken to a solicitor who said it is pointless paying them for representation as they are there on the day of my case as the duty solicitor.

What I would like to know is whether this is the case and also what the likelihood is of my case being in the local press.

Please help as I am losing sleep over this!

Thanks in advance.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

As you may already be aware, the Magistrates sentencing guidelines advise the imposition of a 17-22 month disqualification and a Band C fine for a first offence with a reading of 86 in breath. Alongside this you should also be offered the drink drive rehabilitation course which would reduce the length of the disqualification by up to 25% upon completion.

Whether or not it is worth paying for representation is entirely up to you. However I would be particularly cautious of relying on the duty solicitor at the moment. Without going into needless detail, there is currently action being taken by criminal defence solicitors who are funded by legal aid as numerous cuts have been made to funding. In effect the Court's are now struggling to get through all of the cases as there are far fewer solicitors in attendance, which means that the duty solicitors are usually inundated with people asking for help. You may therefore face a situation where the solicitor in question in willing to assist but has to give priority to the more serious cases. Please note that I am not saying this will happen, only that it might.

The other benefit to instructing someone privately is the preparation that goes into the case. Even on a good day the duty solicitor is limited in the time that they can spend with any one person. Similarly if it comes to light that it would be useful to have any further information/evidence it is usually impossible to get hold of it as you are already at Court.

If you are interested in discussing representation you are welcome to call my department on 0333 999 7158.