Is There Anything I Can Do To Prevent Me From Losing My Licence?

If you have been caught speeding, or caught carrying out some other driving offence, which brings the total number of points you have incurred within the last three years to 12 you will be facing an automatic ban from driving. This may be an extremely worrying time for you as you face the prospect of life without being able to drive. This article looks at the law surrounding automatic bans and what, if anything, you can do to attempt to avoid being banned from driving.

According to legal guidelines anyone who incurs 12 points on their driving licence within a three year period will be subject to an automatic driving ban. You will be required to attend court (you should have a solicitor present) and it will be down to the discretion of the Judge as to whether to impose the recommended minimum ban of 6 months or whether to impose a longer ban. This will depend on your individual circumstances and your history of motoring offences. So is there anything you can do to avoid losing your driver’s licence? The answer to this is that the only way you can avoid a driving ban is to prove to the court that you would suffer ‘exceptional hardship’ as a result of not being able to drive.

There is no statutory definition of exceptional hardship but it is considered to be ‘hardship that goes beyond what would normally be suffered’. It can be very difficult to prove that you would suffer exceptional hardship as a result of losing your licence as it is simply not enough, for example, to say that you would lose your job if you cannot drive. The court will argue that you should and would have been fully aware of this risk when you committed the driving offences you have been charged with. To successfully prove a case of exceptional hardship you must be able to show that other people, such as close family members, would be significantly disadvantaged as a result of you no longer being able to drive. For example, if your spouse depends on you to take him or her to regular hospital appointments, or if an elderly relative relies on you for day to day care and assistance, which you cannot provide without your car, then this may be considered ‘exceptional hardship’ and may avoid a driving ban.

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