About 3 months ago I went to the pub and had a skinfull then stupidly drove home. Unfortunately the police caught me and I ended up in court and had my car licence took off me. The thing is before I went in court I had a talk outside with a solicitor. She seemed a bit useless so I said I didn't want legal representation. She said ok then went into the court and had "a quick word" with the judge about the case. When I went in the judge said he and the solicitor had talked about the case. He then banned me for 12 months. My question is this. Surly the discussion he had with the soliciter, who was not representing me, means he had prior knowledge of the case? Does that mean that he didn't follow proper court procedure and maybe the conviction can be reversed? I know it sounds like Im trying to get off on a technicality and I know I did wrong but if everyone has to follow the rules then judges do too.
You say "unfortunately the police caught me". Well I think that it was fortunate that they did before you killed yourself or worse still someone else.
I assume the case was tried in a Magistrates Court, in which case you would not have been before a Judge, but either a stipendary magisrate or a bench of lay magistrates.
As previous answers have said, the solicitor was more than likely informing the judiciary that you did not want her to represent you in court.
You are not in a position to appeal. Take it on the chin and don't do it again.
Accept your punishment and learn from it. Dont try looking for excuses or reasons to validate what you did. You would have got the same no matter if your solicitor talked to the judge or not. I think you got off lightly actually...
Hi, I'm a lawer. It actually sounds like you're absolutely correct, and you should appeal. To do this, (because of some ancient by-law that needs re-written IMHO) you must go round to the judges house at 4am, strip naked, set fire to his wheelie bins and when he opens the window shout ' I love you Maureen!'
Anyone who drinks and drives deserves what they get. How would you feel if your had knocked someone over and killed them and got 5 years for 'death by dangerous driving'!! Accept your driving ban and get on with it!!!
Juddlinkski Sorry to hijack this post, in another post (the happy slapper?!) I was quite rude to you. I am so sorry. i did not realise you were a fellow professional. had I realised I would have been far worse ;-)