'not guilty' motorists face court costs

[PeteJ]

Government is trying to save money by ditching "the Loser pays" priciple when people contest a speeding fines etc. If you're not guilty of a motoring charge, you still pay the legal bill. This will affect about 400,000 people a year. Surely the powers should simply concentrate on issuing fines or charges correctly in the first place.

If you feel that the same, please sign this petition

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/CostsRecovery/

Full story here

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=20842

Please spread the word everywhere you can...

The Ministry of Justice plan to implement a new costs recovery system from October 2009. Under new rules any defendant acquitted of an offence in the Magistrates' Court will only be reimbursed at prevailing legal aid rates regardless of the level of costs they paid to their lawyers.
This proposed rule change will undoubtedly mean that many defendants will accept wrongful prosecutions for commercial reasons. The Association of Motor Offence Lawyers (of which I am President) see thousands of convictions each year in the Magistrates' Court that should never occur due to misunderstanding of technical points concerning motoring legislation. If a defendant wishes to clear their name, they often have to take their case to the Crown Court. This can be an expensive process for which legal aid is unavailable which many will not embark upon with the knowledge that even when they win their appeal, they will lose the majority of the legal fees they spend in the process.
The costs savings the government are seeing to make could be made by examining and improving other ineffective processes within the court system. It is not fair to pass yet another expense onto the public.

[BaZa®]

Pete this is the same petition already in the Beer Tent mate.

http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...all-costs.html