Drink Driving

The consequences being convicted of a drink driving offence can be life-changing even if it’s your first offence and you may feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to respond to the charges against you.

As with most other motoring offences the more serious the offence, the higher the penalty and if you are convicted you will face a ban of between 12 months and three years.

Less severe offences will stay on your driving record for four years from the date of the offence (or the date of conviction where you have received a disqualification); these include:

DR40 – in charge of a vehicle while alcohol level above limit; 10 points

DR50 – in charge of a vehicle while unfit through drink; 10 points

DR60 – failure to provide a specimen for analysis in circumstances other than driving or attempting to drive; 10 points

DR70 – failing to provide specimen for breath test; 4 points

More severe offences, including driving or attempting to drive above the alcohol limit (DR10), driving or attempting to drive while unfit through drink (DR20), driving or attempting to drive and then failing to provide a specimen for analysis (DR30) and driving or attempting to drive then refusing to give permission for analysis of a blood sample that was taken without consent due to incapacity (DR31) all carry 3 to 11 penalty points and will stay on your driving record for 11 years from the date of conviction.

Defending drink driving cases can be complex and complicated; at Rotheras our motorist defence team specialise in helping clients facing conviction for drink driving. We would recommend seeking legal advice as early as possible after being convicted of a drink driving offence to give us the best possible chance of successfully defending your case and saving your licence.

We have a site dedicated solely to Motoring Offences whilst still using the same expert Transport solicitors, so if you’re looking for more information about types of offences, our team, where we operate or case studies from some of our previous clients, then head over to KeepMeOnTheRoad. If you feel you’ve read enough and want to speak to one of the country’s leading transport Law teams, give us a call now on 0115 910 0600.

Why use Rotheras for Drink Driving Offences?

We are based in Nottingham but act for clients all over the UK.

We can provide an out of hours service.

We will discuss the circumstances of your offence in detail with you to decide on the best approach, whether that’s defending your case or aiming to keep any sentence to a minimum.

We can attend the police station with you where you are required to give a specimen to ensure correct procedures are followed and no errors are made which could lead to an incorrect verdict.

We will thoroughly prepare for your case by viewing CCTV, contacting witnesses and seeking the opinion of toxicology experts and forensic medical examiners.

We can analyse the evidence gathered in the police process to ensure this has been followed correctly.

We have a network of experts including forensic experts we work with to assess the reliability of your breath test result and check that the breathalyser worked properly.

In some cases we can challenge the result of a blood or urine analysis.

We can successfully argue in cases where you consumed alcohol after driving the vehicle (‘hip flask’ defence), using expert advice to assist us with preparing a back calculation.

We have considerable experience in making successful special reasons arguments in exceptional circumstances.

“Our experienced and specialist team represent clients nationally on a day-to-day basis”

Anton Balkitis
Head of Transport Law