just curious

[foreverpools]

on reaching 12 penalty points.
is it an automatic ban? and if so
is your liscence clean when the ban is up?

[New Judge]

Yes, you are liable for a mandatory minimum ban of six months. You will be asked if the ban will impose �exceptional hardship� upon you or others. This is not an easy argument. Things such as loss of employment alone are not usually successful because magistrates take the view that those who rely on driving for a living should be even more careful. If you do succeed with the exceptional hardship argument you cannot use the same reason to avoid a ban again within three years.

If you are disqualified under �totting up� your points total reverts to zero.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

NO,it is not,there are plenty of people out there with 12 pts on their licence,but it will take a lot of persuation on your behalf to convince the court not to ban you,but it works sometimes,and if you do get banned,your licence will come back clean.

[kelann]

NO, you don't automaticly get banned you can get more than 12 points but the judge will decide what happens to you. Any points that were on the licence before the disqualification will remain on there until they have become invalid i.e 4 or 11 year depending on the offece code.

[New Judge]

Judges are not generally involved in motoring offences � certainly not those involving penalty points.

The law on �totting� is quite clear. The accumulation of twelve or more points which arise from offences committed within three years leads to an automatic disqualification for a minimum of six months. However,before such a disqualification is imposed magistrates will ask the defendant if he would like to argue that such a ban would lead to exceptional hardship for him or others. As I have said, the hardship has to be just that � exceptional. Almost anyone can argue that hardship will follow from a ban, but few can successfully argue exceptional hardship and few do.

Kelann is almost correct in that the endorsements remain on the licence for the appropriate period (and so must be declared for insurance, etc.). However the licence holder�s points total reverts to zero if a �totting� ban is imposed.