Cunninghams put forward mitigation on behalf of Mrs H that a period of disqualification would cause her and her family exceptional hardship.  It was argued that Mrs H would be unable to get to work or, indeed, fulfil the duties and responsibilities that she was required to do at work.  Mrs H is a dual qualified social worker and regional health visitor and she simply would not have been able to do her job without a driving licence.  This would have had an effect upon her patients and the National Health Service trust.  Ultimately, the Court were persuaded that this would cause her, her employer and her family exceptional hardship and the Court decided not to disqualify Mrs H in the circumstances.  Obviously, Mrs H was delighted with the outcome.

Cunninghams were able to persuade the Magistrates not to impose the minimum six month ban, as we demonstrated to the Magistrates that Mrs L would suffer exceptional hardship were she to lose her driving licence for any period.  The Magistrates duly accepted our exceptional hardship argument and Mrs L was therefore able to retain her licence.

Mr C had accumulated 12 penalty points as a result of 4 minor motoring offences that were endorsed on his licence within a 3 year period. Exceptional hardship was presented and Carl was able to persuade the magistrates not to impose any period of disqualification. Mr C is involved in the sales industry and his inability to be mobile in his car would have resulted in his contract of employment being terminated. Furthermore, it was argued that it would be difficult for Mr C to obtain employment in the future, even after the expiry of his disqualification period of 6 months. If the Court were unable to find exceptional hardship, then the minimum period of disqualification is 6 months. It was also argued that his employers would suffer as Mr C attracted most of the business to his workplace, and the ramifications could have resulted in redundancies within the workplace. Thankfully, the Magistrates were persuaded by this powerful mitigation and Mr C was not disqualified at all.

We were able to persuade the Court who disqualified Mr K for a period of 21 days and fined him £545. When a Court imposes any period of disqualification they are unable to endorse penalty points.

Carl Millar was able to persuade the Magistrates to disqualify him for the offence alone. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the Magistrates Court Guidelines go up to speeds of 110mph and Mr M was off the scale. The Magistrates were persuaded to disqualify him for the offence alone and disqualified him for a period of 35 days. The sentence was a better outcome than receiving 6 penalty points and then facing a possible 6 months disqualification under the toting up procedure.

He instructed Cunninghams Solicitors to deal with the appeal at Derby Crown Court. The Court were minded to interfere with the sentence imposed by the Magistrates and reduced the disqualification period down from six months to three months. The Court were persuaded by the fact that Mr D’s business was in a difficult state and that he played a vital role in that business amongst other matters.