Single Justice Procedural Notice
Discussion
Hello PH,
I’ve recently received a ‘Single Justice Procedural Notice’ in the post following a speeding offence on the 20th March this year. I was caught by an officer with a radar gun and then pulled over after being clocked at 67 in a 40mph zone. (9pm on a Sunday night, dual carriageway, dry conditions and barely any other drivers on the road).
I’m not here to sulk about it and I accept it was a silly thing to do. It’s given me three options - Plead guilty and let the magistrate decide without appearing in court, plead guilty and appear in court, plead not guilty and appear in court.
Has anyone on here had one of these before and willing to share the outcome - I think it will likely be 6 points and a week and a half’s salary as fine from online research. However, there appears to be an error on the letter which states it will be a £100 fine - is this a likely get out clause? Can I argue that it states a £100 fine on a court document therefore that is the outcome?
Thanks in advance for any advice
I’ve recently received a ‘Single Justice Procedural Notice’ in the post following a speeding offence on the 20th March this year. I was caught by an officer with a radar gun and then pulled over after being clocked at 67 in a 40mph zone. (9pm on a Sunday night, dual carriageway, dry conditions and barely any other drivers on the road).
I’m not here to sulk about it and I accept it was a silly thing to do. It’s given me three options - Plead guilty and let the magistrate decide without appearing in court, plead guilty and appear in court, plead not guilty and appear in court.
Has anyone on here had one of these before and willing to share the outcome - I think it will likely be 6 points and a week and a half’s salary as fine from online research. However, there appears to be an error on the letter which states it will be a £100 fine - is this a likely get out clause? Can I argue that it states a £100 fine on a court document therefore that is the outcome?
Thanks in advance for any advice
Blackpuddin said:
Cheers fella, I’ve had a read through that but it doesn’t add much to what’s already detailed in the letter I received unfortunately.Enthusiasticdriver97 said:
Blackpuddin said:
Cheers fella, I’ve had a read through that but it doesn’t add much to what’s already detailed in the letter I received unfortunately.It was introduced in 2015 and its use increased significantly during Covid restrictions with a view to minimising contact between people.
"Previously, defendants were sent a requisition inviting them to either plead guilty by post or attend a specific magistrates’ court on a day already allocated and resourced by the court.
"But predicting defendants’ attendance at court was difficult – they had no obligation to attend but could do so without notice. This meant magistrate and court time was wasted if the defendant did not show up and the matter was resolved in their absence. Conversely, cases could be delayed if lots of defendants attended on the same day and hearings over-ran."
With the new procedure a case isn't listed for a real court hearing unless the defendant asks for one so court time is not automatically allocated. This should increase court efficiency by avoiding wasted time.
The magistrate reads the written evidence themselves as opposed to hearing it from a prosecutor. Just as before, defendants have the same choice either to attend court or plead guilty in writing. This can sometimes be done online which further increases efficiency.
So nothing has really changed. I suspect OP's best approach is to send a short written message of excuses, apology or whatever and see what penalty gets imposed. From the facts stated it's not obvious what benefit could be achieved by asking for a court appearance.
"Previously, defendants were sent a requisition inviting them to either plead guilty by post or attend a specific magistrates’ court on a day already allocated and resourced by the court.
"But predicting defendants’ attendance at court was difficult – they had no obligation to attend but could do so without notice. This meant magistrate and court time was wasted if the defendant did not show up and the matter was resolved in their absence. Conversely, cases could be delayed if lots of defendants attended on the same day and hearings over-ran."
With the new procedure a case isn't listed for a real court hearing unless the defendant asks for one so court time is not automatically allocated. This should increase court efficiency by avoiding wasted time.
The magistrate reads the written evidence themselves as opposed to hearing it from a prosecutor. Just as before, defendants have the same choice either to attend court or plead guilty in writing. This can sometimes be done online which further increases efficiency.
So nothing has really changed. I suspect OP's best approach is to send a short written message of excuses, apology or whatever and see what penalty gets imposed. From the facts stated it's not obvious what benefit could be achieved by asking for a court appearance.
Enthusiasticdriver97 said:
Hello PH,
I’ve recently received a ‘Single Justice Procedural Notice’ in the post following a speeding offence on the 20th March this year. I was caught by an officer with a radar gun and then pulled over after being clocked at 67 in a 40mph zone. (9pm on a Sunday night, dual carriageway, dry conditions and barely any other drivers on the road).
I’m not here to sulk about it and I accept it was a silly thing to do. It’s given me three options - Plead guilty and let the magistrate decide without appearing in court, plead guilty and appear in court, plead not guilty and appear in court.
Has anyone on here had one of these before and willing to share the outcome - I think it will likely be 6 points and a week and a half’s salary as fine from online research. However, there appears to be an error on the letter which states it will be a £100 fine - is this a likely get out clause? Can I argue that it states a £100 fine on a court document therefore that is the outcome?
Thanks in advance for any advice
It’s 2022 so laser, not radar. I’ve recently received a ‘Single Justice Procedural Notice’ in the post following a speeding offence on the 20th March this year. I was caught by an officer with a radar gun and then pulled over after being clocked at 67 in a 40mph zone. (9pm on a Sunday night, dual carriageway, dry conditions and barely any other drivers on the road).
I’m not here to sulk about it and I accept it was a silly thing to do. It’s given me three options - Plead guilty and let the magistrate decide without appearing in court, plead guilty and appear in court, plead not guilty and appear in court.
Has anyone on here had one of these before and willing to share the outcome - I think it will likely be 6 points and a week and a half’s salary as fine from online research. However, there appears to be an error on the letter which states it will be a £100 fine - is this a likely get out clause? Can I argue that it states a £100 fine on a court document therefore that is the outcome?
Thanks in advance for any advice
You are at risk of a short disqualification for this offence. If no ban then 6 points.
Strategy depends on your preferred outcome. If short ban then guilty, attend court. Otherwise, guilty, I don’t want to attend.
It won’t be 1.5x salary. Plead guilty and the fine will be approximately 1x net weekly salary subject to £1k maximum. There’s also prosecution costs and, depending on the offence date, a victim surcharge of 10% or 40%. (10% for March 2022)
It isn’t an error and that’s a ridiculous proposal.
Panamax said:
So nothing has really changed. I suspect OP's best approach is to send a short written message of excuses, apology or whatever and see what penalty gets imposed. From the facts stated it's not obvious what benefit could be achieved by asking for a court appearance.
Nothing has changed?- the case may be heard by one magistrate, rather than the usual two or three
- the case is not heard in open court
- there is no fixed date for the hearing
The clue is in the name single justice procedure. This means one magistrate / justice of the peace. It really should be called single magistrate procedure.
agtlaw said:
It’s 2022 so laser, not radar.
You are at risk of a short disqualification for this offence. If no ban then 6 points.
Strategy depends on your preferred outcome. If short ban then guilty, attend court. Otherwise, guilty, I don’t want to attend.
It won’t be 1.5x salary. Plead guilty and the fine will be approximately 1x net weekly salary subject to £1k maximum. There’s also prosecution costs and, depending on the offence date, a victim surcharge of 10% or 40%. (10% for March 2022)
It isn’t an error and that’s a ridiculous proposal.
It was indeed a laser gun and not a radar. I’d prefer the points to a ban, so I think I’ll proceed with Guilty, no court appearance. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my post, the info you’ve provided is really helpful. You are at risk of a short disqualification for this offence. If no ban then 6 points.
Strategy depends on your preferred outcome. If short ban then guilty, attend court. Otherwise, guilty, I don’t want to attend.
It won’t be 1.5x salary. Plead guilty and the fine will be approximately 1x net weekly salary subject to £1k maximum. There’s also prosecution costs and, depending on the offence date, a victim surcharge of 10% or 40%. (10% for March 2022)
It isn’t an error and that’s a ridiculous proposal.
As for the final part - I’m not familiar at all with this process, I’d mentioned it to one of those freephone driving offence solicitors who stated it was most likely an admin error. If it’s not an error, why would it be listed on the ‘official’ headed paper in a box next to the fine amount after it has listed the offence code and type etc.
I don’t mean to come off argumentative and as I said I appreciate your input, I’m just curious what reason there would be for listing that on the document when it’s not correct?
Thanks again.
agtlaw said:
I would categorise it as extraneous information rather than an error. It’s the fixed penalty amount and you are not eligible for a fixed penalty.
Ok that’s understandable, I still think it makes little sense to state that in my documents given that’s it’s not applicable to my case but I’ll stop whining to you about it. Thanks again for responding.
Panamax said:
It was introduced in 2015 and its use increased significantly during Covid restrictions with a view to minimising contact between people.
"Previously, defendants were sent a requisition inviting them to either plead guilty by post or attend a specific magistrates’ court on a day already allocated and resourced by the court.
"But predicting defendants’ attendance at court was difficult – they had no obligation to attend but could do so without notice. This meant magistrate and court time was wasted if the defendant did not show up and the matter was resolved in their absence. Conversely, cases could be delayed if lots of defendants attended on the same day and hearings over-ran."
With the new procedure a case isn't listed for a real court hearing unless the defendant asks for one so court time is not automatically allocated. This should increase court efficiency by avoiding wasted time.
The magistrate reads the written evidence themselves as opposed to hearing it from a prosecutor. Just as before, defendants have the same choice either to attend court or plead guilty in writing. This can sometimes be done online which further increases efficiency.
So nothing has really changed. I suspect OP's best approach is to send a short written message of excuses, apology or whatever and see what penalty gets imposed. From the facts stated it's not obvious what benefit could be achieved by asking for a court appearance.
Seems like a sensible way to deal with offences of this nature, I dread to think how much time was wasted with no shows. "Previously, defendants were sent a requisition inviting them to either plead guilty by post or attend a specific magistrates’ court on a day already allocated and resourced by the court.
"But predicting defendants’ attendance at court was difficult – they had no obligation to attend but could do so without notice. This meant magistrate and court time was wasted if the defendant did not show up and the matter was resolved in their absence. Conversely, cases could be delayed if lots of defendants attended on the same day and hearings over-ran."
With the new procedure a case isn't listed for a real court hearing unless the defendant asks for one so court time is not automatically allocated. This should increase court efficiency by avoiding wasted time.
The magistrate reads the written evidence themselves as opposed to hearing it from a prosecutor. Just as before, defendants have the same choice either to attend court or plead guilty in writing. This can sometimes be done online which further increases efficiency.
So nothing has really changed. I suspect OP's best approach is to send a short written message of excuses, apology or whatever and see what penalty gets imposed. From the facts stated it's not obvious what benefit could be achieved by asking for a court appearance.
In response to your comment about a short letter to the magistrate - how would I go about doing this? There’s no mention of it in the paperwork I received, and I imagine if I plead guilty with no court appearance the next correspondence I receive will likely be the details of my punishment? Just stick an envelope inside the response form addressed to the magistrate?
Cheers
Enthusiasticdriver97 said:
Seems like a sensible way to deal with offences of this nature, I dread to think how much time was wasted with no shows.
In response to your comment about a short letter to the magistrate - how would I go about doing this? There’s no mention of it in the paperwork I received, and I imagine if I plead guilty with no court appearance the next correspondence I receive will likely be the details of my punishment? Just stick an envelope inside the response form addressed to the magistrate?
Cheers
No. Do it online. In response to your comment about a short letter to the magistrate - how would I go about doing this? There’s no mention of it in the paperwork I received, and I imagine if I plead guilty with no court appearance the next correspondence I receive will likely be the details of my punishment? Just stick an envelope inside the response form addressed to the magistrate?
Cheers
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