HELP court summons received

Hi all, i have just today received a court summons for driving without due care and attention on the date of 06/07/10. I was not pulled over and this is totally out of the blue, not to mention over 3 months ago! Is there no timescale to which they have to convict you? I could really use any advice and am quite worried as i could receive penalty point and fine etc. Please help

Matt

Your best bet will be to speak to a solicitor who specialises in these cases.

Do you remember anything about the date in question?

Cant remember anything at all, the road in question is my route to work but the time does not fit. I already have 3 points for contravening a solid white line so im prety sure they will see this and assume im a rekless driver

[fizzwheel]

As said legal advice and take it from there.

Have a look in the back of MCN, theres plenty of firms specialising in this kind of thing. Alot of them may well give you the first hour free and then take it from there.

Got legal cover on any of your insurance policies?
if so, call them.

check the dates, the police only have 3 months to raise ANY court proceedings against anyone meaning that if the date was 06/07/10 they had untill 06/10/10 to raise the court request, outside of this date and any good solisitor will get it cleared off for you.
Also, got any other details about what they are charging you for? Should all be contained in the court documents.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by collis

the police only have 3 months to raise ANY court proceedings against anyone

Six months to lay the papers before the court, no requirement to inform the defendant within that time limit

Source

sorry my mistake, although you should have received a letter asking if you were the driver of the viechle and the alledged offense that you should have replied to some time ago, if not chances are the police have done to you what they did to my partner, i confirmed i was not the driver (incident where she was driving my car and although stopped another car hit my cars mirror), she replied confirming that she was the driver unyet they apprently "never received the reply" even through it was handed in directly to the police station that it was intended to be sent to.

Right, did you receive a Notice of Intended Prosecution prior to this or is this the first you have heard of it? Seems strange that they haven't served a NIP on you as the registered keeper of the vehicle will need to be required under S172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to provide details of the driver of the vehicle at the material time. Are you sure this is a court summons and not a NIP?

Thanks for all the replies, it is a court summons, im due in court on the 7th of jan at 10am so should be a lovely late christmas present. I live with my girlfriend and my post goes to my parents place stil however i always collect it and dont remember getting an 'NIP' unless i mistook it a junk and threw it.

As for the details it literally just states the road and time and that i am being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention section 3 of the road and traffic act 1988. Im a full time student at university and work part time 24hrs a week i have very little spare cash to pay for solicitors. Im thinking of just pleading guilty and trying to get my punishment down to a bikesafe course. Ive read into this offence and apparently its hard to defend and easy to prosecute as its my word against that of an obviously upstanding officer of the law!

[dyzio]

Are you sire you'll get away with bikesafe for admitting driving without due care and attention?