| Speeding
Ticket: Template Letter 3. |
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| [If you do not have a
Solicitor but want to contest it in Court... you can have someone sit with
you... known as a "McKenzie Friend", (named after a Court case.) You can confer with
them but they cannot address the Court directly. If you plead
"Guilty" then you can only claim "mitigating
circumstances", (for example, I was trying to get out of the way of
an Ambulance) or "special circumstances", (like, I will lose my
job) in the hope that you will receive the minimum
punishment rather than the maximum. If you think you have a chance
of getting off... plead "Not Guilty".] |
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| I wish to plead "Not
Guilty" Your Worships (in a Magistrates Court) Your Honour (to a
Judge in a Crown Court) I believe that my actions were not
unlawful because they meet all the criteria laid out by The Court of
Appeal concerning... "duress of circumstances" for this type of
offence... let me just quote from... |
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| Wilkinson's Road
Traffic Offences: 21st edition. Which reports... The Court of
Appeal confirmed that such defences were available for offences such
as these, but only... "where a defendant had committed an
otherwise unlawful act to avoid imminent peril of danger to life or
serious injury to himself or some other person for whom he was
responsible. The evil must be directed towards the defendant
or some other person for whom he had responsibility and could be
identified by reference to the action threatened. The evil to
be prevented must be greater than the evil done... which should be no
more than reasonably necessary to avoid the harm feared". |
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| My circumstances were as
follows... |
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| I was heading in a (Southerly...
North-Westerly?) _________ direction along the (M1... M40?)
______ travelling on... or near to the posted Speed Limit. When
you're travelling at that speed (near the limit) you often find that you
become surrounded by other vehicles all travelling along at a similar
speed. On this particular occasion I found myself to be surrounded
by large trucks. But then, the general situation started to
deteriorate! |
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| I was catching up to the
truck ahead... but couldn't pull out because one was slowly overtaking me in the
next lane. Then I had another who was catching up from behind... and
started to tailgate me. I fully
expected the truck behind to overtake once he had the chance... but he
didn't... he just sat on my tail. It was as if he was trying to
intimidate me into going faster... which seemed very strange because I
couldn't, as I had another truck just in front of me. I did slow
down a bit... hoping that this truck would go past... but this just seemed
to make him angry and he began tailgating me in a really dangerous and
aggressive manner... coming, literally within 2 or 3 metres. |
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| (As I'm sure
you know... having
someone tailgate you like this is not that unusual... actually it happens quite
regularly these days... and when it happens with a large truck... it's very scary.
When you suddenly find you have a large truck ahead of you... a large
truck tailgating you... and a large truck travelling along next to you...
then you really start to panic. As a car driver... this is one situation that you never want to find yourself in! You know that if
anything goes wrong... and anyone hits the brakes...
your car could end up being crushed like a tin can!) |
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| If Relevant.
Now, as if that wasn't bad enough... it was also raining (or, it had
been raining) the roads were wet... and all these trucks were
kicking up spray which was cutting the visibility down to just a few
yards. |
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| In my rear-view mirror I
could see there were a lot of trucks behind... many of them slowly
catching me up. Up ahead, I could see there was a large expanse of
relatively empty road. I knew that I really needed to extricate
myself from this very dangerous situation. When I got the chance... I
moved out into the second lane... but this was also full of trucks... so I
knew I would have to move out into the outside lane to get past them. |
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| In my side mirror I could see
there were quite a lot of cars coming up quickly in the outside lane... so
I waited for the opportunity to get out into this lane. Now I knew I
would have to exceed the speed limit for a while in order to put some
space between myself and these trucks... but once I had opened up a bit of
a gap I could settle down near the speed limit... but in a much safer section... with
plenty of space around me, (and no spray?) |
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| But... whatever happened from that
point on... I knew I would have defused the situation. I would have got
myself out of a potentially deadly situation... and without putting anyone
else at risk... and having exceeded the speed limit for no more than was
absolutely necessary. |
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| Unfortunately for me... I
happened to come across a speed camera (Radar? Laser?) at that very moment. Now that
may seem like a bit of a coincident... but can I just say... I
travel many thousands of miles every year... passing hundreds... if not
thousands of these machines... and only this one? (only two? only
three??) in the past year? (two years? three years?) have found me to be exceeding the speed
limit... so it is not
a coincidence... it is something which is bound to happen occasionally...
especially to people who do a lot of driving. |
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| The bottom
line is... I had a life-threatening situation to deal with... and I did
what any reasonable person would have done in those circumstances. I
managed to get myself out of a very dangerous situation... without putting anyone else
at risk. While I realise that these rules are open to
interpretation... I believe that my actions were fully justified... and well
within the general guidelines of this law.
So, on that basis... I do not believe I am guilty of anything. |
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| If Relevant...
and True!
If asked whether you mentioned the incident at the time... you
might say something like... I did speak to the Police at the time... but I didn't mention
the situation. It seemed fairly obvious to me that their
mission was to hand out tickets... not track down dangerous
drivers! They were obviously going to give me a ticket
whatever I said... so I didn't think it was worth getting
involved in a long discussion over the particular
circumstances. |
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| Or... I did try
to explain the situation to the officer... but he cut me off,
saying something like... "there are no excuses for
speeding"... so I stopped trying to explain. |
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| For more
Information... |
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| UK
Driving Secrets. Downloadable ebook
written by a Traffic Officer with years of
on-the-job experience... it gives Legal tips on all aspects of driving...
getting stopped... appealing against various tickets... and taking the fight to
Court. [The
kind of Information that an ordinary Solicitor probably wouldn't
tell you about.] |
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| Beat
the Speeding Ticket. This ebook gives Legal Advice to those
who are specifically fighting various kinds of Speeding Tickets... comes
with a range of Template Letters. [ Have a look at their
advert... they give a brief outline of everything they cover.] |
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| Drink
Driving Facts Kit Not that we in any condone
Drink-Driving... but if you have been breathalyser and you need some legal
advice... this is a good place to start. Why pay a Lawyer to give
you information when you can download all the essential facts for a
fraction of the price? [Also gives some
interesting facts and figures about Drink-Driving.] |
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