Additional costs:

- Further Court hearings. If your case does not conclude after your first hearing at the Magistrates Court, an additional fixed fee will be payable for us to represent you at any subsequent Court hearings.

- Further pre-Court meetings. If you require more than one pre-court meeting with one of our solicitors, this will incur an additional fee.

- Face to face meetings. We believe in providing an efficient, speedy service. In order for a meeting to be scheduled as early as possible, it is often mutually convenient and easier to work around our other commitments if our pre-Court meeting is via telephone or video call. If you would prefer a face to face meeting at our offices in Birmingham, this can be arranged for an additional cost.

Please note that in the event that additional work is required, we will let you know in advance wherever possible. There are no hidden costs. Our fixed fee structure always takes into account all the information we have at the time and the service that is required.

Typical agreed fixed fees:

We have provided an illustration of typical agreed fixed fees for summary only motoring matters. Please note that these fees can vary according to the number of offences you are facing prosecution for, the type of offence, the seriousness of the offence, the location of the Court and the time involved to prepare the case.

Unless otherwise stated, we anticipate being at Court for one hearing for up to 2 hours.

However, if we are at Court for longer than we have anticipated, you will not be required to pay any additional legal fees for the extra time at Court, because we have agreed to

represent you up to a certain stage for a fixed fee Whilst we provide advice and representation across the nation, the fees shown below are based upon cases before Birmingham Magistrates Court (local to our city centre office).

Attendance at distant Courts will attract an additional cost.

- Guilty plea to motoring offences which conclude at the first appearance at the Magistrates Court: £750 plus VAT

- ½ day (up to 3 hours) trial covering 2 hearings: £1250 plus VAT

- 1 day trial (up to 6 hours) covering 2 hearings: £1800 plus VAT

- Exceptional hardship arguments: £1000 plus VAT

- Special Reasons arguments: £1000 plus VAT

Timescales:

Typically, upon guilty plea(s) to summary only motoring offences being entered at Court, the case will conclude at the Magistrates Court on the same day. There is the possibility of the matter being adjourned by the Court as more information is required e.g. for a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the probation service. In this case we would expect the matter to conclude within 4 weeks of the guilty plea(s) being entered.

If not guilty plea(s) are entered to summary only motoring offences, it will take up to 6 months for the case to be concluded.

The time estimates mentioned above are general indications of how long these cases take. Busy Magistrates Courts often have a substantial backlog of cases. When there is a backlog, cases are likely to take longer to conclude.

Recovery of legal fees For all criminal prosecutions including agreed fixed fee motoring matters, if you are found ‘not guilty’ after trial or the case against you is discontinued, you may be entitled to recover a proportion of your legal fees from Court central funds if the Court grants a Defence Costs Order.

It is, however, important to note that even if a Defence Costs Order is awarded, the costs that can be recovered are limited to legal fees and these are capped at legal aid rates. It is unusual for a private paying acquitted defendant to fully recover his legal costs, it is possible to recover a proportion of them.

To be able to receive defence costs in the crown court, the defendant must have applied for legal aid, and then be determined to be ineligible to receive it. Without this formal determination of ineligibility for legal aid, no costs can be recovered in the event of an acquittal.