21. Mar. 2010. – 13:03:11
Most
holders of a UK driving license have heard of "totting"; the addition
of penalty points which are endorsed on a license for various offences eg
speeding, no insurance, careless driving etc etc. In most cases upon reaching
twelve points there is an automatic six month disqualification from driving in
this country. It is the accepted practice that in order to ensure a driver is
not unaware of the sanction when penalty points reach or breach the magic
twelve s/he is summonsed to appear before magistrates. The summons is
considered "served" when proof of first class posting is presented to
the court. This, as is all too obvious, allows defendants to declare
truthfully or otherwise that they have never received such a summons. There
are arguments for and against instituting "signed for" service but
that is for another time.
A very
common appearance before a bench is the individual making a statutory
declaration in which s/he declares and signs to the effect that eg an event has
or has not occurred and the applicant wants to put matters straight. One
common such "has not occurred" event is the non receipt of a court
summons and therefore the consequent inability to have complied with the
subsequent court directive deriving from that summons.
A
couple of weeks ago a woman made and signed such a "stat dec" to the
effect that she had not received a summons for a motoring offence for which she
was in her absence fined and disqualified from driving as a "totter"
the court having had a print out from the DVLA in front of it and therefore
full knowledge of her previous penalty points. She had been away from
home for three months and as she lived alone nobody had forwarded or opened her
mail. She came to court two days after coming home and reading the
summons. She was advised that after her form had been countersigned by a
Justice of the Peace on the bench the matter was "dropped" and the
papers would be returned to the CPS and court involved which would at its
discretion decide whether or not to re-issue the summons. She was told that she
was still able to drive as the points which had tipped her over the edge were
erased at least for now.
The whole system of the service of
court summons is a cause for concern. For example there are millions of
immigrants new to the country in the last fifteen years; many live in rented
accommodation and frequently change address; most are law abiding members of
the community but unfortunately anecdotal evidence suggests that they are
liable to appear in court at least as often and possibly at a higher rate than
UK citizens. For them and for all citizens the obvious answer is personal
service but the cost, the cost, the cost!
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