Edinburgh is an easy city in which to acquire penalty points. Most residential and city-centre streets carry a 20mph limit, the bypass and the arterial routes are camera-covered, and a driver who has never considered themselves anything but careful can be at 12 points inside a couple of years. The consequences do not stay in the courtroom: insurance rises sharply, and for anyone whose employment or professional registration depends on a clean record, a conviction reaches further still. Charles Ferguson Solicitors defend motoring charges throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians from our Glasgow office at 20-23 Woodside Place, G3 7QL. Call 0141 345 5735.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court — Road Traffic Cases
Motoring prosecutions from Edinburgh and the Lothians are heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Sheriff Court House, 27 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LB, in the Sheriffdom of Lothian and Borders. Routine summary motoring business — speeding, careless driving, insurance and licence offences — is generally taken in the Justice of the Peace Court, while drink driving, dangerous driving and cases prosecuted on indictment call before a sheriff. Where a collision has caused a death, the charge of causing death by dangerous driving is prosecuted in the High Court of Justiciary, which sits in Edinburgh. We appear across all of these courts.
Motoring Offences We Defend in Edinburgh
Drink Driving and Drug Driving — Scotland's limit of 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood is the lowest in the United Kingdom, and it catches a great many drivers the morning after rather than the night before. We examine Intoximeter calibration and maintenance records, the procedure followed at the station, and whether the hip flask defence is open on the facts. Dangerous Driving — conviction brings disqualification for at least 12 months and a compulsory extended retest, so the line between dangerous and careless driving is usually where the case is won or lost. Careless Driving — a question of degree that is worth arguing properly. Speeding — Edinburgh's citywide 20mph limits generate a large volume of charges, and the A720 city bypass, the A1, the A90, the A70 and the A702 are all enforced; we check device type approval and calibration and whether a Notice of Intended Prosecution was served within 14 days. Totting Up and Exceptional Hardship — at 12 penalty points disqualification for at least 6 months is mandatory unless exceptional hardship is proved on evidence. Driving Without Insurance — 6 to 8 penalty points or discretionary disqualification. Mobile Phone Offences — 6 penalty points. Driving While Disqualified — a charge that carries a real risk of custody.
Who Depends on a Licence in the Lothians
Edinburgh has good public transport, and courts here know it — which is precisely why an exceptional hardship application has to be specific rather than general. The people it genuinely bites are identifiable: the city's large taxi and private hire trade, where a conviction can cost the operator's licence as well as the entitlement; delivery and trades staff working out of Sighthill, Newbridge and the industrial estates; NHS Lothian and care staff whose shift patterns start and finish when nothing is running; and the substantial number of people who live in East Lothian, Midlothian or West Lothian and commute in. A ban that would end an income needs to be evidenced with rotas, contracts, distances and figures. Ask about Legal Aid when you call 0141 345 5735.
Areas Served Across Edinburgh and the Lothians
We act for drivers charged anywhere in Edinburgh and the Lothians, including the city centre, Leith, Portobello, Gorgie, Dalry, Morningside, Newington, Corstorphine, Sighthill, Wester Hailes, Craigmillar, Colinton, Currie and Balerno, together with Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Loanhead, Tranent, Prestonpans, Haddington, North Berwick and Dunbar. Charges commonly arise on the A720 city bypass, the A1, the M8, the M9, the A90, the A70 and the A702. Call 0141 345 5735.