RMNJ bring a friendly and responsive approach to all your legal requirements

The Solicitors Regulation Authority require us to comply with certain regulations concerning information provided to potential clients who wish to be represented in certain motoring matters.

The Transparency Rules relate to cases that can only be tried in the Magistrate's Court which are dealt with in one hearing. These are Summary only motoring offences under Part I of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and s89 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.

For Magistrates and Crown Court cases that are not covered by these regulations and where legal aid is unobtainable, we will give a written estimate of our charges before you decide to instruct us and before you incur any costs.

This is how the RMNJ Solicitors Criminal law department complies with the Transparency Regulations relating to single hearing Magistrates only motoring matters under the above Acts:

The wording of the rules we have to comply with and our responses are below.

Costs information:

The total cost of the service

We will undertake these cases for a fixed fee of £400 plus VAT and disbursements.

Disbursements are expenses we have to pay out on your behalf. We will tell you what these are in advance.

Travel longer than 30 minutes is charged at £50 per hour plus VAT.

The experience and qualifications of anyone carrying out the work and of their supervisors

All you need to do is click on the "staff" tab in our criminal law department web pages and this information is available for you, together with our photographs.

A description of and cost of any likely disbursements

If there are any disbursements we will discuss these with you beforehand so you know exactly what the cost will be. Note: we don't make a profit on disbursements, we only charge you the actual cost we have paid for the expenditure agreed by you in advance.

Whether any fees or disbursements attract VAT and the amount

VAT is charged for our services but not for disbursements.

Details of what services are included in the price displayed including key stages of the matter and likely timescales for each stage and details of any service that might reasonably be expected to be included in the price displayed but are not

Our Service

The service we give in such cases includes the following:

Considering the evidence
Providing advice in relation to plea ["guilty or not guilty"]
Explanation of the sentencing options open to the court and where possible, we will tell you the sentence we expect to be handed down by the court.
Advice on representations we can make to the court on sentence, where the court has a discretion such as exceptional hardship or "special reasons" for not disqualifying a driver who would otherwise be disqualified from driving or disqualifying for a shorter period e.g. because they would lose their job e.g. HGV driver.
Up to a total of 30 minutes travelling time.
Representation in court at a single hearing

The fixed fee does not include:

instruction of any expert witnesses
taking statements from any witnesses
advice and assistance in relation to a "special reasons" hearing
advice or assistance in relation to any appeal
More than one hearing
Preparation for or representation in a trial

Key Stages

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

Meet with your solicitor to provide instructions on what happened.
We will consider initial disclosure, and any other evidence and provide advice.
Arranging to take any witness statements if necessary (this will have an additional cost, of £100 plus VAT per statement).
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 will conduct any further preparatory work, obtain further instructions from you if necessary and answer any follow up queries you have.
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 up to half a day.
We will discuss the outcome with you. If advice is required on appeal, this will carry an additional cost.

Complaints Information:

Our complaints handling procedure including details of how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority is all in the Client Care section of our web site, a link to which is on every page of our website by clicking on "client care".

Regulatory Information:

RMNJ is required to provide in a prominent place on its website its Solicitors Regulation Authority number and the Solicitors Regulation Authority's "digital badge".

RMNJ's Solicitors Regulation Authority number and its "digital badge" is to be published on the footer of every page of the web site. Note: At time of preparation of this note, November 2018, details of the "digital badge" had not been released by Solicitors Regulation Authority.

RMNJ's letterhead and emails must show its Solicitors Regulation Authority authorisation number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority".

RMNJ's letterhead and email correspondence shows this information in the footer of both formats.