Doogue + George

Traffic and Driving Law

Defending traffic charges.
How do I Get The Best Result?

The starting point for for getting the best result for a traffic charge is getting the right advice.

Driving and traffic charges are considered very serious by the Courts, and penalties can range from a hefty fine and licence disqualification to imprisonment. Other than having a criminal conviction recorded against you, which can impact your employment and prospects, a licence disqualification may immediately affect your affect lifestyle and employment.

Effectively fighting a traffic charge can mean that the impact on your life, livelihood and loved ones is as minimal as possible.

For the best possible defence in court, you should seek the advice of a skilled traffic lawyer. Even if you are planning to enter a plea of guilty, a traffic lawyer can best represent you to the courts, put your offending in context and help you achieve the best possible outcome.

Why engage a lawyer to defend your traffic charge?

At Doogue + George, we pride ourselves on thinking strategically for clients.

We know the best ways to present your matter at court. Our traffic solicitors work as a team and will strive for the best result you can get. Each client is different, all circumstances are individual and that needs to be reflected in the approach taken on their behalf.

If you are deciding whether to use a lawyer to represent you in court, you should consider a good defence lawyer who is a specialist in driving cases. A skilled traffic lawyer will:

  • Know what the court can take into account to reduce disqualification periods
  • Know what it is the Court wants to hear and can make really useful submissions directed to those topics and issues
  • Understand what a Magistrate does not want to hear and will not say things that are likely to anger the magistrate and make things worse
  • Know all the law about sentencing law and can make submissions to your advantage
  • Properly convey who you really are to a Magistrate who will be dealing with a lot of matters on that day
  • Ensure they have all the documents including character references that need to be given to the Magistrate
  • Knows all the defences to traffic available and can advise you as to your likely prospects of success
  • Stand up as a traffic lawyer for you to a Magistrate

If you engage Doogue + George to represent you, we will work out a plan that is specific to you. The following are just some of the items that we consider are important in getting the best outcome that you can. It is not imperative that you do them all and for some people they are not applicable, however, they are a good place to start if you are intent on getting the best outcome for your traffic charge.

Road Trauma Courses are approximately three hours long and are a group session. Ambulance drivers and other similar people come and speak about their experience in traffic accidents. Most of our lawyers have done these courses so that they can explain them to you properly. We have all found them to be very informative and an excellent course for any driver. Doing the course shows the Magistrate that you are taking steps to improve your driving and they will take that into account when sentencing you. http://rtssv.org.au/education/ Unless you are ordered to do the Course by the Court they will require a letter from us outlining the traffic charges before they will accept you on a course.
Properly drafted character references that are addressing the central issues in your case are very important. The character reference must give context to your life and the events leading up to you appearing in Court. They should be written after you have properly instructed your traffic lawyers. The reason for this is that we may ask for references that are dealing with a particular issue (eg the fact that you stopped driving after the accident). Magistrates and Judges will often comment that they never see a negative character reference. However there are great character references that clearly hold their attention and make them think about you as a person. Writing a useful character reference for a traffic matter is something that takes some deliberation. Please use the guide below as a starting point in the process. Download a guide on how to write an effective character reference.

We have a team of lawyers who specialise in representing clients charged with traffic offences. These lawyers appear daily before all the Magistrates’ Courts in Victoria. How this helps you:

  • You will have a traffic lawyer who will know the Magistrate and how best to approach them;
  • You will have a traffic lawyer who has specialist knowledge as to what penalties and orders to ask for;
  • You will have a traffic lawyer who knows what to say and, perhaps more importantly, what not to say.

This is just a sample of the matters that we will discuss with you. Every case is different, but there are often similar themes and ways of approaching cases. We have the experience that comes from having handled thousands of traffic cases and also from consistently getting great results for our clients.

We get results because we put effort into preparing your case and we think about how we can improve your result.

Pleading guilty or not guilty

We will advise you on the strengths of your case and whether we think you should plead guilty or not guilty to the traffic charges.

To make a proper assessment of traffic charges it is necessary to have your detailed instructions and also all the material from the Police in relation to the charges. Often traffic defences will turn on an issue that is not apparent to you straight away. It will be something that arise from the process and procedure that the Police have used.

Our licences and our liberty are very important to us. If you have a defence to traffic charges we will find it and then defend you in Court.

Leaving aside the more technical defence traffic charges are mainly disputes over facts. The way that you were driving and the consequences of your driving. As with a criminal trial the most important defence you have is to be prepared properly. We pride ourselves on preparing traffic matters to the highest level.

In traffic case the Police have to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. That is the legal standard that the Prosecution have to prove their case to.

Often people have an idea of what went wrong and why the Police have misunderstood what was actually happening. This is invaluable information to give to your lawyer.

If you want to discuss a possible defence fill out an enquiry form on the right or call 03 9670 5111.