Our fees
At the London Drink Driving Solicitor, we believe fees should be transparent, simple and reasonable. That’s why we work for you on a fixed fee so that you know what you are going to be asked to pay from the start of your case.
When you instruct us, you will be getting the personal services of Nicholas Diable, a dual-qualified solicitor and barrister who has specialised in motoring law for many years. Your case will always be prepared by Nick and he will usually be the person to represent you in court. Where Nick is not available, we will select an advocate from our panel of expert advocates.
Assessing the correct fee to charge can be difficult because it is hard to predict at the very beginning of a case how complex it will be, which is why we need as much detail from you at the start as possible. A typical magistrates’ court trial will take between 15 and 25 hours to prepare and conduct. Below are the issues that commonly arise in the life of a case that we will deal with on your behalf:
- Consideration of all documentation received from the police, such as charge sheets, bail notices, section 172 notices, etc;
- Liaising with the police (where necessary), e.g. to obtain material held by them such as recordings of your police interview, the custody record from your detention, etc.;
- Consideration of the police/prosecution disclosure such as,
- witness statements,
- exhibits,
- unused material – this is the evidence the prosecution do not intend to rely upon but which has been featured in many recent news reports before the contents of the unused material often leads to defendants being acquitted;
- Consideration of all documentation received from the court;
- Consideration of police/prosecution applications such as
- applications to admit bad character evidence,
- to grant special measures for witnesses,
- applications for compensation or forfeiture of money or goods,
- applications to adduce hearsay evidence, or
- to admit otherwise inadmissible expert evidence;
- After consideration of applications listed at 5. we will also draft appropriate responses to such applications;
- Advice to you on the evidence and the course of action available to you;
- Preparation of witness statements for your witnesses;
- Instruction of experts to produce evidence on your behalf – please note that this does not include the cost of the experts themselves, which will be billed separately;
- Corresponding about your case with the CPS and the court; and
- Drafting defence applications and documents such as
- Defence Statements,
- Applications for third-party disclosure of material, e.g. where CCTV is held by somebody who is not party to the case we may be able to secure it by asking the court to order them to provide it to us,
- Applications where the prosecutor has failed to serve evidence they possess and that we require,
- Applications to adduce hearsay evidence of our own into the trial, this is a common application that is often heard on the day of trial. In drink driving cases, the evidence is often something like a friend who has told you that they spiked your drink, unless an application is made you cannot give that evidence at the trial.
Some cases require us to do all these things and more, others need just a few items from this list. So, when we set out fees we are trying to work out which of these is likely to happen in your case.
The fees
These fees are exclusive of VAT.
We charge a fixed fee of £995 to prepare for your first hearing in the magistrates’ court, which includes our expert analysis of the evidence and, where appropriate, written advice on the evidence, along with representation at the hearing. If you decide to plead guilty and the case ends that day there is nothing else to pay; however, there will be additional fees if the court adjourns your case for sentence or if you challenge the evidence and enter a not guilty plea. These fees are detailed below.
It is unusual for the court to adjourn to a second day for sentence, but where they do, we will charge a fixed fee of £500 for the sentencing hearing.
Where you decide to plead not guilty or argue that there is a special reason for not disqualifying you from driving, we will charge a fee appropriate for the level of work necessary for your case. This will range from £2,000 in the very simplest cases to £6,000 for the most complex cases. A typical trial will cost around £3,500. This fee includes the list of issues that could arise set out above along with representation at the first day of your trial – in the magistrates’ court the overwhelming majority of cases conclude within one day. In it unusual for additional hearings to be required but where we are required to attend extra hearings there will be additional fees. We will always try to deal with an additional hearing by correspondence but where that is not possible the fees for such hearings are £995 for an uncontested hearing and £1,500 for a contested hearing.
Flexible payment plans
We are happy to arrange flexible payment plans so you can spread the cost and afford to hire the best solicitor in town.
Give us a call and we can discuss how we can get win your case without breaking the bank.
Claiming your legal costs back
We like to win.
Winning is good because it makes us happy, it makes you happy and it means that the prosecution have to pay your legal costs!
When we win a case we always apply to the court for a Defence Costs Order. This is the court order that allows you to recover your costs (that includes your own out of pocket expenses, legal fees and expert fees) from the prosecution. There are some conditions to Defence Costs Orders, which is another good reason to instruct a solicitor who understands how they work.
Call us now on 020 8242 4440 (lines are open 24-hours) or visit our contact page to send us an email.