Inquiry: A friend of mine has been arrested for driving without a liscense. He neglected to attend his court date for this charge and as a result he must serve 21 dayis in jail, 14 with good behavior. His liscense was suspended for unpaid fines, will he have to pay for those fines to get his liscense back? And will he still have his liscense suspended for 2 years? Is there anything he should do when he is let out to protect him from future problems such as an appeal to have his record wiped clean?
Response: Not knowing more specifically about the case, I can not give you very specific or accurate feedback to your questions. However, if there were fines owing to the Court from previous charges, serving jail time on a later offence will not effect the fines already owed to the court. Not attending a court date is about one of the worst things that a Defendant can do as they then have no say in what occurs in that hearing. Without knowing more about the history of this situation, addressing the outstanding fines and getting the licence reinstated would likely be the simplest way of avoiding future problems.
Sincerely,
Greg Currie
Office Manager (London)