Incorrect procedure-fixed notice court appearance

s15r330

Received a letter today telling me correct procedures were not followed in 2008 when I was in court for a traffic offence. €250 fine and 4 points at the time.

Anyone know the possible outcome of this?

Cee-Jay-Cee

I'm not sure but was talking to someone else about this recently. I think you would have to figure out how much this error has cost them since then. Like if you reported it to your insurance company for the following 5 years, how much extra in premiums have you paid. Did you have a solicitor represent you, if so how much did it cost.

Saying for example you got 3 points that year but the filling year got another 10 and ended up losing your licence and job as a result of having no licence, then what value is there on that?

What else does the letter say? Are they going to compensate you or do you have to lodge a claim yourself?

Atlantic Dawn

I'd guess there will be solicitors advertising for a large scale compensation payment to those who suffered loses as a result of this, keep an eye out for them.

s15r330

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I'm not sure but was talking to someone else about this recently. I think you would have to figure out how much this error has cost them since then. Like if you reported it to your insurance company for the following 5 years, how much extra in premiums have you paid. Did you have a solicitor represent you, if so how much did it cost.

Saying for example you got 3 points that year but the filling year got another 10 and ended up losing your licence and job as a result of having no licence, then what value is there on that?

What else does the letter say? Are they going to compensate you or do you have to lodge a claim yourself?

I had a solicitor but to be honest I can't even remember her name never mind how much she was. Would they have a record of her do you think?

Just says they reviewed my case and discovered incorrect procedures were followed. There is an enclosed form I can return for them to lodge an appeal on my behalf.

boardsuser1

s15r330 wrote: »

I had a solicitor but to be honest I can't even remember her name never mind how much she was. Would they have a record of her do you think?

Just says they reviewed my case and discovered incorrect procedures were followed. There is an enclosed form I can return for them to lodge an appeal on my behalf.

The court file should have the name of your solicitor attached who was defending the case.

mickdw

So this must be the issue with the 14000 incorrect the speeding fines that the Gardai sent out.
No doubt a few euro coming your way. Get as much as you can because I find the whole thing disgusting. The Gardai in some cases took normal law abiding people straight to prison over speeding fines with no chance to pay fine or defend themselves.

smurfyirl

The guards cant just take a person directly to prison. If the fines been issued and unpaid it automatically generated a summons. From there the judge would have had to have found them guilty and issued a penal warrant.

The guards cannot lodge someone in prison without that warrant from the judge and the prison officers wouldn't take them without it.

cletus

Maybe I'm a bit slow here, but what exactly are we talking about re "incorrect procedures". Is it the case that people were given fines they did not deserve, e.g. a speeding fine when they were in fact not actually speeding, or is it paperwork etc. being mishandled in a case where the person involved was legitimately caught breaking the law

smurfyirl

Im simplifying this a huge bit here. The gist of it was that there were offences that the guards summonsed people to court for. There were also tickets (Fixed Charge Penalty Notices) for these offences.

The judges decided at a conference that people should have been afforded the chance to have the tickets rather than the summonses.

As a result all the cases where people were summonsed were deemed wrong.

Most speeding cases wouldn't be affected by this as they were dealt with via tickets. Its more for stuff like running lights or driving without due care and attention etc.

Essentially the law was interpreted differently between the gardai and the judiciary. As such the judiciary will always win. It wasnt a case of people were wrongly convicted. They were all offences. But the issue was they should have gotten a ticket rather than a summons.

selectamatic

Fixed penalty notices weren't issued to some people for various offences such as speeding etc. Instead they just got a summons to go straight to court.

This was the "incorrect procedure" and hence now all of the cases effected are being reopened or reversed I'm unsure which, but some people stand to recoup a lot of money.

It's truly an amazing screw up and imo if it happened in any other public sector heads would have rolled but so far it's all been nicely swept under the carpet aside from a few headlines and a bitta posturing during "interviews".

Edit: Smurfy beat me to it.

And a key point he raised that I didn't touch on is that speeding offences are a tiny part of this, cases that saw people banned off the road are being called into question.

mikeecho

cletus wrote: »

Maybe I'm a bit slow here, but what exactly are we talking about re "incorrect procedures". Is it the case that people were given fines they did not deserve, e.g. a speeding fine when they were in fact not actually speeding, or is it paperwork etc. being mishandled in a case where the person involved was legitimately caught breaking the law

Speed up and read a newspaper.

Summons were issued instead of a ticket

flandabieduzie

s15r330 wrote: »

Just says they reviewed my case and discovered incorrect procedures were followed. There is an enclosed form I can return for them to lodge an appeal on my behalf.

I wonder is it best to get a solicitor check that before signing. Would it potentially limit what you could receive!?

s15r330

flandabieduzie wrote: »

I wonder is it best to get a solicitor check that before signing. Would it potentially limit what you could receive!?

Yeh i'm going to do just that!

NUTLEY BOY

If any of you intend to instruct a solicitor be sure to get an estimate in writing before engaging them. The estimate should give you an indication of the likely level of fees that might be charged.

It might be a good idea to get a few quotes.

Potentially, this entire scenario may turn in to a proper mess in terms of people seeking compensation for financial losses consequent on the errors. It may be expected that some firms might even set up a dedicated unit to deal with these cases in which case they should be able to spread costs across the clients or make a fortune. Careful now..........