When I first started Kent Criminal Law I did some advocacy work for one of the national firms specialising in motoring offences. There were occasions when I got the distinct impression that their clients were given false hopes and had unrealistic prospects as to their prospects of success. I was also astonished when their clients told me they were paying for their services. That is not to say however that there are many occasions when a drink drive matter is worth fighting. Police do make mistakes and sometimes things are not as clear cut as they might seem.

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We offer a fixed fee service starting at £320 to take a look at your case and advise on any possible defences. If our advice is that there is little hope of an acquittal should you take the matter to trial, the fixed fee includes representation at court where we will place the mitigation before the bench or District Judge and do our best to secure the minimum period of disqualification and punishment that the court are able to impose. 

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If our advice is that there is a realistic prospect of an acquittal, the fixed fee will cover the first hearing of your case and the listing for trial. We will then agree a fee for the preparation of the case and the trial advocacy. This fee is likely to be between £500 and £1200 depending on the complexity of the case.

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Some recent results.

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In a case before the Gloucester Magistrates, we were able to persuade the District Judge hearing the trial that being stripped naked by police did provide the defendant with a reasonable excuse for failing to provide a specimen. Having been strip searched the defendant was frog marched naked to the breathalyser room. He made it clear that he would provide a specimen once his clothes had been returned. The police accepted that his clothes had not been seized for evidential purposes and there claim that a paper coverall was provided was shown to be untrue. The CCTV showed that the offer of alternative clothing was made after they had told him that they were prosecuting for the offence of 'failing to provide'.

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In April of 2018 we were able to persuade the bench at Medway not to send our client to prison for his second drink drive in a three year period. Both the original offence and the new one were very high readings and the case was clearly one where there was a realistic prospect of a custodial sentence. A Community Order was imposed with the requirement that 120 hours of unpaid work be performed.

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The offence that 

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