Totting Up
What is totting up and how does it work?
Totting up is where you’ve accrued 12 penalty points on your driving license. The court starting
point is that you’ll be banned from driving for six months. This is unless you can show what’s called
exceptional hardship. This is where hardship occurs to either you or your family or your business.
What types of exceptional hardship arguments succeed?
If you attend court and you’re facing a driving disqualification under the totting up procedure, the court do recognise that everyone is going to suffer hardship as a result of losing their driving license to an exceptional hardship argument goes over and beyond just showing that you are going to face difficulty as a result of losing your license. Exceptional hardship cases usually relate to matters where you’re likely to affect someone else within your family, if it’s going to affect your business, for example, if you are caring for an elderly relative, and it’s likely to affect them, and the courts are likely to have more sympathy and accept an exceptional hardship case, rather than something that just relates to you as an individual.
Do I need a solicitor?
I would always recommend that a solicitor is engaged in a case of exceptional hardship. It is important that your case is well prepared and well presented. In addition, magistrates are getting tougher and tougher on speeding offenses and therefore it is less likely that exceptional hardship will apply.
