Any motorist who receives 12 penalty points on their license within a three-year period faces an automatic ban of at least 6 months, according to guidelines set by the court. A 6 month ban is the minimum recommendation to receive that number of points within a three year period and the judge, on the day of the hearing, would be within his rights to impose a longer ban if he felt it was warranted. The only way to get around a driving ban in these circumstances is to prove in court that he would suffer “exceptional hardship” as a result of losing his license.
So what exactly is exceptional difficulty? There is no legal definition of exceptional hardship, but it is considered to be “hardship beyond what would normally be experienced”. It is the case for most drivers that losing their driver’s license would cause them some difficulty, so in order to persuade the court to avoid imposing the driving ban, you must be able to show them that the loss they would suffer as a result of the ban . driving would go beyond what would be classified as ‘normal’ difficulty. After all, an accused driver is likely to have been well aware of the consequences of receiving 12 points over a three-year period, and therefore must have an extremely strong argument to show that they would suffer exceptional hardship as a result of any ban. imposed. It is not enough to simply say that he would lose his job if he were banned from driving; again, the court would argue that you were well aware of this risk when you committed the driving violations that resulted in him receiving 12 penalty points on his License.
However, if you can show that other people, i.e. spouse, children and extended family members, will suffer greatly as a result of you losing your job because you cannot drive, then this may be enough to be seen as a “hardship.” exceptional”. Likewise, if you can prove that losing your license, for example, would prevent you from taking your sick child to weekly hospital appointments, or losing your license and therefore your job, would result in you not being able to meet the your mortgage payments. and the fact that your family has to move out of the family home; this can be classified as hardship ‘beyond what he normally suffered’, ie ‘exceptional hardship’.
If, later on, you find yourself again in the position of having received 12 penalty points on your license within a three-year period, you will be able to file an ‘exceptional hardship’ case with the court again. However, unless a period of three years has passed since your last conviction, you will not be able to use the same exceptional hardship reasons that you used previously.
Copyright (c) 2010 Robert Gray
