Income Tax Rates

If you have been unfortunate enough to be accused of committing a motoring offence , then you will need to prepare yourself quickly in order to put forward a plausible defence. There are many aspects of the law that are open to interpretation and the prosecutor needs to correctly complete every stage of the accusation process or you could have grounds to contest the allegation.

You can give a Special Reasons argument if you believe that your circumstances are such that you should not receive the full punishment. These are often used to avoid driving bans when accused of drink driving but can also be used to avoid points on your licence in certain offences.

When you argue Special Reasons you will have to provide evidence under oath that given the situation you were in it would be unfair to issue penalty points. The most common reason given is that they had an emergency i.e. there was a seriously injured passenger who they were taking to the hospital and exceeded the speed limit or ran a red light.

If your case is found to have a Special Reason, then you will not be given any penalty points. There are however no strict guidelines as to what constitutes a Special Reason, but it must fall under one of the following:

1. A mitigating or extenuating circumstance

2. It must not constitute a legal defence to the allegation

3. It must be directly connected to the offence in question

4. It must be something that the Court ought to take into consideration when deciding what punishment to impose.

You will find information about the Special Reasons argument and its guidelines in section 34 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act of 1988.