Totting up / penalty points

Many motoring offences are punishable by the endorsement of penalty points on your driving licence. If you receive 12 or more penalty points in a 3 year period then it is likely that you will be disqualified from driving for a minimum of 6 months. This disqualification is often known as a ban under the “totting-up” provisions.

The minimum periods for disqualification are as follows:

• If no previous disqualifications – at least 6 months
• If one previous disqualification of at least 56 days in the 3 years immediately prior to the commission of the last offence – at least 12 months
• If more than one previous disqualification of at least 56 days in the 3 years immediately prior to the commission of the last offence – at least 24 months

However, although these are the minimum periods which may be imposed, there are ways in which a disqualification can be avoided or, at the least, reduced in terms of the length of the ban. If you are able to show that Exceptional Hardship will be caused by the disqualification then it is possible that the court will not order a disqualification or reduce its length. You should therefore contact keepmedriving as a matter of urgency if there is the possibility that you will be facing a ban so that we can advise you as to your best course of action.

For the exceptional hardship argument to succeed you must, as the name implies, show that the hardship which you will suffer is more than just that which anyone losing their licence would have incurred.

It is always worth contacting keepmedriving in any event to see if you have a potential exceptional hardship argument because, even if your circumstances are not accepted by the court as being exceptional hardship, you will still only receive the ban which you would have received had you not put forward the arguments.

Finally, however, it is worth bearing in mind that even if you receive a “totting-up” disqualification one advantage is that your driving licence will be wiped clean of all the points that you have so far accrued. However, the disadvantage is that clearly you will be unable to drive for a period of at least 6 months.

For more advice relating to the application of totting up provisions, complete the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, request a free, no obligation call-back using the call-back form to the right or phone us during office hours on 084 4804 4804