Pricing for Motoring offences

Our Director, Nama Zarroug provides expert legal advice and representation in relation to motoring offences. Having worked within the area of criminal law since 2001, Nama qualified as a Solicitor in 2005 and as a Solicitor Advocate in 2009.

Nama’s work is supervised by Matt O’Neil, a Solicitor who qualified in 2014 and who is also a Higher Court Advocate and Head of the Criminal Department.

Nama is also provided with administrative assistance on her cases by Kieran McIver and Isobel Graves, who are both paralegals. You can find out more information about the team by visiting the Our People section on our website.

Nama represents clients on a private basis, with fees calculated by reference to her hourly rate of £325 + VAT, currently charged at 20%, making the total £390 per hour.

In many cases, we are able to agree fixed fees at the outset, based on the estimated number of hours required. All figures below include VAT at 20%:

• Initial court appearance, case management and trial preparation (including special reasons or exceptional hardship arguments):
  £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT)

• Guilty plea and mitigation (no previous court attendance required):
  £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT)

• Exceptional hardship hearing (no previous court attendance required):
  £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT)

• Special reasons hearing (no previous court attendance required):
  £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT)

• Half-day trial or Newton Hearing representation:
  £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT)

• Interim hearings, case management hearings, or separate sentence hearings (when required):
  £1,194 (£995 + £199 VAT)

Our rates are reviewed annually, and any changes will be communicated in advance. All fees are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate, which is currently 20%.

The following key stages of your matter are based on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date for your hearing.

• Within 7 days, we will arrange for you to speak with your solicitor to provide instructions on what happened.
• Within 7 days of the Initial Disclosure being served, we will review the disclosure and any other evidence, and provide advice.
• Within 14 days of witnesses being identified as required, we will arrange to take any witness statements. This carries an additional cost of £780 (£650 + £130 VAT) per witness.
• 3 days before the hearing, we will explain the court procedure to you, so you know what to expect on the day of your hearing, and the sentencing options available to the court.

We cannot provide a timescale of when your hearing will take place, as this depends on the court listings for that day.

We will attend court on the day and meet with you before going before the court. We anticipate being at court for approximately half a day.

We will discuss the outcome with you. If advice is required on appeal, this will carry an additional cost.

Please note that, depending on court listing practices, if you plead not guilty and the matter proceeds to trial, it can take between 4 to 12 months to conclude.

In some cases, the court may require a Pre-Sentence Report before sentencing. This will involve an additional hearing, charged at £954 (£795 + £159 VAT). Sentencing hearings may also be listed several weeks after the first hearing — sometimes up to 6 weeks later.

Before any fixed fees are agreed, we will explain if there are likely to be any variations. Some cases require additional work due to their complexity, the amount of preparation involved, or the level of service the client requests.

In these cases, Nama will carry out the work at her hourly rate of £390 (£325 + £65 VAT). We will always provide a cost estimate at the outset and keep you updated throughout.

The cost of a case conducted on an hourly rate typically ranges between £1,800 (£1,500 + £300 VAT) and £6,000 (£5,000 + £1,000 VAT), depending on the work required.

Our fixed fees include disbursements, meaning that we don’t charge for travel expenses and printing.

In some cases, it is appropriate for the client to also instruct and independent expert such as a forensic toxicologist. Their fees are payable by the client directly to the expert and usually can range from £2,400 to £12,000 (including VAT at 20%) depending on the amount of work required and the issues specific to the case. If we consider that your case requires or might be assisted by an expert report, we will tell you at the outset, ensure that you are happy with the expert and the fee, and will never incur an expense on your behalf without seeking your consent.