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 at private rates, that are calculated with reference to her hourly rate of £325 plus vat.

In many cases, we will agree fixed fees at the beginning of the case which are calculated with reference to the number of hours work that the case is likely to involve:

• Where necessary, attendance at the first court appearance, case management and subsequent preparation for trial/special reasons/exceptional hardship argument – £1500 plus Vat
• Guilty plea and mitigation where no previous attendance at court is required – £1500 plus Vat
• Exceptional hardship argument hearing where no previous attendance at court is required – £1500 plus Vat
• Special reasons hearing where no previous attendance at court is required -£1500 plus Vat
• Representation at half day Trial/Newton Hearing – £1500 plus Vat
• Interim, case management hearings or separate sentence hearings when required – £995 plus Vat.

Our rates are reviewed annually, and any changes notified to clients. In addition to the rates set out above, VAT is charged at the rate applicable, 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 discuss with your solicitor to provide instructions on what happened.
• Within 7 days of the Initial Disclosure being served we will consider initial disclosure, and any other evidence and provide advice.
• Within 14 days of them being identified as required we will Arrange to take any witness statements (this will have an additional cost, of £650 + 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 listing 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 listing practices at Court if you plead not guilty and the matter is listed for trial this can take between 4-12 months to conclude. If you plead not guilty it may be that the court require Pre-sentence reports before sentencing, you and this will require an additional hearing at an additional cost of £795+VAT. The sentencing hearing may be listed many weeks after the first hearing and can be up to 6 weeks later.

Before you agree fees with us, we will explain if there will be any variance in the above fixed fees. Some cases will require more work due to their complexity, the level of work involved or because of the level of service that the client requires, and, in those circumstances, Nama will conduct this work at an hourly rate of £325 plus Vat. In those cases, we will provide you with an estimate of costs at the outset and continue to update you throughout the case. The cost of a case conducted on an hourly rate is likely to range between £1500 plus Vat and £5000 plus Vat.

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 £2000-£10,000 plus vat 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.