Motoring Offences - Our Fees & Services

We believe in ensuring quality in our services and aim to ensure that the funding of your case is cost-efficient and entirely transparent. We thrive in providing you with dedication to your case but we understand that the costs of your case will be important to you and to those involved in your case. It is important that you are fully aware of how much you will need to pay. We will always agree costs in advance of any particular case once we have had an opportunity to assess the issues and the level of work and assistance required. We will take time to agree the costs with you by understanding you, your case and the work involved. However, in In accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Transparency Rules and in order to provide a good estimate of the sort of level of fee you will pay (whether that be an agreed fee or a range of the costs involved in a typical case) if you were to instruct us, we have set out on our website a breakdown of our standard charges for this type of work. There may be other costs that you would need to pay over and above our fees and we aim to provide information of those in addition. Our aim is to enable you to have a good understanding of what it may cost you overall.

Set out below is service and cost information for advice and representation at the Magistrates Court in relation to summary only road traffic offences deal with at a single hearing.

You may also have the benefit of other sources of funding such as legal expenses insurance or funding through a trade union or other representative. Please do not hesitate to contact us to explore your options.

Value Added Tax (VAT)

VAT @ 20% has to be added to our fees and some disbursements.

Who provides the service?

This work is undertaken by our criminal team as set out to the right of this screen

All motor offences work is supervised by Debbie Hubbard who is a solicitor and Partner.

SUMMARY ONLY ROAD TRAFFIC OFFENCES DEALT WITH AT A SINGLE HEARING UNDER PART I OF THE ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1988 AND S89 OF THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984

Basis of our fees

This work is charged at fixed rates.

For matters which are summary only and are dealt with at a single hearing our fees are £450 plus VAT @ 20% (£90) (total £540).

Services included in the fee quoted

Attending you to take instructions either at the office or court
Considering evidence
providing advice on likely sentence
Where appropriate, making Written Representations to the Prosecution
Full Preparation for the Hearing, including preparing your Full Mitigation
Attendance and representation at a single hearing at the Magistrates’ Court

For hearings in areas in close proximity to our offices, we would generally attend the hearing ourselves but for cases in courts further away we may use counsel. Counsel’s fee are included in the quoted fee above.

Services not included in the fees quoted

On most occasions where you are entering a guilty plea, the matter will be dealt with at a single hearing. If you plead not guilty or there are any circumstances which mean that the matter is adjourned, set down for a longer hearing or trial, this will usually require assistance at hourly rates (see below). In particular, the fixed fee quoted does not cover the following services:

any trial and preparation for trial
instruction of any expert witnesses
taking statements from any witnesses
advice and assistance in relation to a special reasons hearing
advice and assistance in relation to an exceptional hardship hearing
any additional hearings
If you are unhappy with the outcome, the cost of challenging a decision or consideration of your options

Any services which are not included in our fixed fee will be charged at our hourly rate which ranges from £150 for a paralegal ((plus VAT @ 20% = £30)(Total £180) to £180 for a solicitor ((plus VAT @ 20% = £36)(Total £216) per hour and we will discuss this with you should it become necessary and provide a bespoke quote depending on your circumstances.

Expenses and Disbursements not included in the fee quoted

Expenses and disbursements could include:

Interpreters fees at £25 plus VAT @ 20% (£5) (total fee £30) per hour if needed
Translation of documents at £25 plus VAT @ 20% (£5) (total fee £30) per hour if needed. It is not possible to predict the cost of these as this varies according to the particular circumstances.
Travel costs to the Court - there will be additional disbursements in respect of our mileage/travel expenses based upon a rate of £0.45 per mile or second class public transport (plus VAT @ 20%)
If we need to stay overnight then hotel accommodation may be chargeable (amounts subject to VAT @ 20%) but we would try and avoid there where possible

Key stages

The key stages will depend on the particular circumstances of the case but on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date set for your hearing and the matter will be dealt with conclusively at the hearing, they will include:

Your attending us to provide your instructions
Our consideration of initial disclosure, any other evidence and provision of advice
Explaining to you the court procedure so you know what to expect on the day of your hearing
Explaining the sentencing options available to the court
Attending court on the day and representing you – this usually needs us to attend for up to half a day as there will be some waiting time
discussing the implications of the outcome with you but this does not include advising on options to appeal

Typical timeframes - how long will the process take?

In cases where a case is dealt with at a single hearing the whole case is usually completed within six months from the date of the offence. However, each case is different and we cannot provide a precise timescale of how long each key stage will take or when hearings will take place, as this depends on many factors such as the complexity of the matter and court listings.  

We should be able to give you a more accurate idea of timescale when we’ve more details about your case.