What should you say at Court for Drink Driving?
You should not turn up to court unrepresented.
Firstly, virtually no case is hopeless regardless of your alcohol limit. This may seem counter-intuitive but the alcohol limit in your breath, blood or urine is not the end of the matter.
It is true that the alcohol reading is a factor -of course it is- but it is not the only factor in proving the case against you. There are many other procedural steps that must be followed in order for the case against you to be proven.
So the alcohol reading is not the beginning and end of the case.
To those people who assume that it is then of course you are free to plead guilty and be disqualified from driving for -on average- two or three years.
But most people want to fight these cases and as we live in a democracy and not some authoritarian state where the result is preordained, that is their right.
Now that you know that every case is potentially defensible regardless of the alcohol reading, let’s look at Court.
If you've been summoned to court, you do not have to obtain a Solicitor, but you should. As much as you may think that you know from research online or asking people, you simply cannot defend a case like this on your own.
You wouldn't attempt open heart surgery after watching YouTube videos so why on earth would you attempt to represent yourself in court?
Once represented by a solicitor your position gets a little easier. Your solicitor's job is to speak on your behalf. If you have a lawyer, you will not be asked to speak. In fact, the Judge will positively discourage you from speaking if you are represented on the grounds that - due to anxiety or nervousness - you blurt out something that is against your best interests.
In virtually every court in the country - and I have been to most of them- this pattern is repeated. If a person comes into court without a solicitor, the Judge will expressly ask them whether they intend to get a lawyer or not.
Judges know perfectly well that you do not know how the Court system works and that your knowledge of the law and its consequences for you may be non-existent. They also know that they have an over-riding obligation to be fair to you.
By telling you that you should get a solicitor they are not giving you an order. You can refuse and that is your right. But they are signalling something to you, something you should pay attention to.
And they’re doing something else: they are protecting you from yourself. They are protecting you from taking steps today that may have long lasting consequences for you.
While it is rare that people represent themselves in Court in matters such as drink driving, it does happen. I can only assume that people do this because they believe -or have been led to believe by others - that their situation is hopeless.
This is rarely the case.
Defending a drink driving case is not rocket science. It is not beyond the bounds of intelligent people to understand the law, if it is explained to them or they are experienced in it.
What should you say a court for drink driving? Ideally you will be represented by a lawyer, and you will not have to say anything.
But if you do come to court without a lawyer, can I suggest that you ask the court to give you some time to get one?
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