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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.

If you believe that the particular circumstances under which you committed the driving offence should exempt you from some or all of the punishment, then you can make a Special Reasons argument. These are most commonly used to avoid bans in drink driving cases, however they are sometimes used to avoid penalty points for other offences as well or driving through a red light.

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 the court deems that there were indeed Special Reasons in your circumstances, then you will not be issued any licence points. There aren't any particular definitions of Special Reasons, however you will have to prove that your situation was 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.

The opportunity to argue Special Reasons is contained within Section 34 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

For more information about driving without due care and attention and for free legal motoring advice, visit pattersonlaw.co.uk