Advice on court appearance please

andygb

One of my relations in her early sixties, had an accident (her first ever in 35 years of driving) a few months ago, and had to make a statement to the police at the time, because she was judged to be at fault.
Nobody was seriously injured in the crash (a few bruises), but she told me yesterday that she has to go to court on a charge of "driving without due care and attention". I have been in the car with her a few times, and she does not speed and is pretty careful (I would say very careful).
She will have to get legal advice, but having not been in this position before, I cannot give her any advice, and she is quite worried by it all.
Can anyone help?

McKneff

Well what is her defence. Or will she just plead guilty.
Only she knows what happened.
Even the most careful drivers can be distracted

brat

If she is going to plead guilty, she needs to offer the best possible mitigation for her actions. If she felt it was a momentary lapse of concentration, and her previous driving record is exemplary, she should make the court aware of this. A solicitor would assist in being able to provide good mitigation, which may well help in keeping the fines and points as bearable as possible.

If she intends to plead not guilty she needs to properly examine the prosecution case to find what the case against her is. She should write to the crown prosecution service to ask to receive the prosecution case at the earliest opportunity. This is usually best done by getting a solicitor to do the necessary work.

Sgt_Pepper_2

brat wrote: »

If she is going to plead guilty, she needs to offer the best possible mitigation for her actions. If she felt it was a momentary lapse of concentration, and her previous driving record is exemplary, she should make the court aware of this. A solicitor would assist in being able to provide good mitigation, which may well help in keeping the fines and points as bearable as possible.

If she intends to plead not guilty she needs to properly examine the prosecution case to find what the case against her is. She should write to the crown prosecution service to ask to receive the prosecution case at the earliest opportunity. This is usually best done by getting a solicitor to do the necessary work.

A solicitor to plead guilty, do you think they would save money?

Early guilty plea saves a third, the fine would be means tested anyway. How much do you think a solicitor would charge?

OP when you know what the plea is post back.

andygb

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

A solicitor to plead guilty, do you think they would save money?

Early guilty plea saves a third, the fine would be means tested anyway. How much do you think a solicitor would charge?

OP when you know what the plea is post back.

I think that this is what is concerning her the most, because she is not sure how she is going to plead. I don't know what happened (only she and the other driver know), but I think that she would regard a "guilty" plea as something similar to a "plea bargain", where she does not want to admit to something which she is certain she did not do.
I am all too aware of legal fees, so can see how much a guilty plea would save, so would it be worth her doing this based on her previous driving record and age, then all I have to do is try to explain/convince her.
Is it worth seeing if her insurance includes legal fees?

brat

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

A solicitor to plead guilty, do you think they would save money?

Early guilty plea saves a third, the fine would be means tested anyway. How much do you think a solicitor would charge?

OP when you know what the plea is post back.

You've slightly misunderstood me. Many people will look at the two things separately. If saving money is all you are interested in doing, then plead guilty, try to do so by letter if you can, although that doesn't seem an option in this case.
Many people would however prefer to pay a significant amount to have a solicitor properly reflect the nature of the offence, ie they would pay a solicitor if he could properly express the defendant's explanation of their actions, even if the net cost is greater. Sometimes a solicitor may be able to encourage points down which might be important too. A solicitor might also see that there's no due care to admit to.

So it's not always a straightforward tally up.

Edit, didn't see the op's last post before I posted

McKneff

~So what actually happened, surely she has told you.

Sgt_Pepper_2

andygb wrote: »

I think that this is what is concerning her the most, because she is not sure how she is going to plead. I don't know what happened (only she and the other driver know), but I think that she would regard a "guilty" plea as something similar to a "plea bargain", where she does not want to admit to something which she is certain she did not do.
I am all too aware of legal fees, so can see how much a guilty plea would save, so would it be worth her doing this based on her previous driving record and age, then all I have to do is try to explain/convince her.
Is it worth seeing if her insurance includes legal fees?

What you need to do it sit down with her and list exactly what happened against what is alleged. If in any way she drove to c standard below that is expected of a competent driver then the plea should be guilty. There is no plea bargaining with careless as it can't be reduced.

brat

The trouble with careless driving is that the offender is occasionally completely unaware of what they have done wrong. They may also be getting the rough end of the stick from the other party (if there is one) who may have embellished the incident slightly to reduce his or her culpability. It would be really worthwhile to get access to the prosecution case, which you will be able to do on contact with CPS.

dacouch

brat wrote: »

The trouble with careless driving is that the offender is occasionally completely unaware of what they have done wrong. They may also be getting the rough end of the stick from the other party (if there is one) who may have embellished the incident slightly to reduce his or her culpability. It would be really worthwhile to get access to the prosecution case, which you will be able to do on contact with CPS.

Like the guy I saw this morning doing a 3 point u turn in the middle of a set of traffic lights in a long wheel base van

andygb

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

What you need to do it sit down with her and list exactly what happened against what is alleged. If in any way she drove to c standard below that is expected of a competent driver then the plea should be guilty. There is no plea bargaining with careless as it can't be reduced.

From what I understand, she pulled out onto a roundabout (which she uses every day), after she had checked that nothing was coming. Suddenly another car appeared and collided with the front of her car.
Obviously I do not know the exact circumstances, but from what she said, she is unable to get this out of her mind, and cannot work out how she failed to see the other car, between the time she looked right and when the collision took place.