Special Reasons Defence

Special reasons applies to all alleged offences from speeding, driving without insurance and drink driving related offences. 

If a special reason is found then this could reduce the number of driving licence penalty points or reduce the period of a driving ban and, in some circumstances no penalty points nor a period of driving disqualification may be imposed.

There are four criteria that must exist in order to raise the issue of special reasons:

1. It must be a mitigating or extenuating circumstance;
2. It must not amount in law to a defence to the charge;
3. It must be directly connected with the commission of the offence;
4. The matter must be one that the Court ought properly to take into consideration when imposing punishment.

Special Reasons Defence: Emergency situation

At Cunninghams Solicitors we will look at the facts of your driving offence case to try and establish whether the circumstances may amount to a special reason. It is not possible to define all emergencies. What is necessary generally is if you act in a crisis or emergency and you have no other option.

Emergency situations have been held to amount to special reasons when a person has fled as the victim of an assault or driven someone to hospital.

Speacial Reasons Defence: Shortness of Distance

If you commit a driving offence but you have only driven a very short distance, for example, while parking your car, a special reason may be found. One of our expert driving offence solicitors, Carl Millar, has previously represented a defendant whereby he moved his car in the middle of the night from a residential area which was on double yellow lines to a space on the same street where there were not any double yellow lines. This was to avoid any parking charges in the morning. Unfortunately, the defendant was exhausted due to unforeseen work commitments and when he was found by the police he was parked in the middle of the road because he had fallen asleep. The Magistrates Court accepted that the reason why he had fallen asleep was due to his excessive work commitments rather than being drunk although he was over the prescribed drink drive limit. In such circumstances the Magistrates found special reasons and did not impose any period of driving disqualification upon the defendant.

Special Reasons Defence: Spiked Drinks

Other examples of special reasons could be if your drink is spiked with alcohol or a drug. It is always possible that your drink may have been spiked unbeknown to you. Further, one of your friends may genuinely not have known that you intended to drive a vehicle and therefore spiked your drink. In such circumstances, the Magistrates’ may find a special reason if the Defence can show on the balance of probability that the defendant did not know or suspect that their drink had been spiked and that, if they had not consumed a spiked drink, they would not have exceeded the prescribed limit.

In order to establish that your drink has been laced Cunninghams Solicitors have many years experience working with experts who can provide calculations of what your claimed alcohol consumption would be if it were not for the laced drink.

Duress Defences

The defence of duress covers the whole array of driving and motoring offences. If the duress defence is established then this is a complete defence. There is a slight distinction between the duress defence and special reasons. If special reasons are found not to disqualify a defendant or to impose penalty points on their driving licence then this is still a guilty finding although the Magistrates have exercised their discretion not to disqualify or impose penalty licence points by virtue of special reasons.

A defence of duress would only succeed if you can show fear of death or serious injury and whether a sober person of reasonable firmness, showing a defendant’s characteristics, would have responded in this way. This could apply to an allegation of careless driving or dangerous driving, speeding or drink driving offences depending on the circumstances.

Recent Cases

Absolute discharge for speeding offence

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