Totting Up & Exceptional Hardship

Disqualification and the exceptional hardship defence

When an individual is convicted of a driving offence, it is frequently the case that they will have points put on their license. If 12 or more points have been accrued on someone’s license within a three-year period, they face disqualification from driving.

This is known as “totting up” and is a method used to ensure that drivers are not able to keep on committing minor offences indefinitely. In accordance with Section 35 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, the Court is bound to disqualify a “totter” from driving unless it can be proven that to do so would cause them “exceptional hardship”.

“Exceptional hardship” is a difficult term to qualify, because the fact is that there is no strict definition of what the term means or which situations it will necessarily include. It can be noted, however, that exceptional hardship does truly mean exceptional; even arguing that you will lose your job as a result may not be a sufficient defence.

On the other hand, if you can show that your or other people’s lives will be severely impacted as a result of your disqualification, this may suffice for exceptional hardship – for example, if you are disabled or a disabled person is dependent on you for transport, or if you are involved in a business where other employees will suffer a great deal as a result of your disqualification.

If your plea of exceptional hardship fails, disqualification from driving is mandatory, and if you have previously been disqualified for more than 56 days within the last three years, your disqualification will last a minimum of one year rather than the usual minimum of six months.

If you are looking to argue exceptional hardship, you should seek legal advice to ensure that you make your case correctly and that it is presented professionally and properly.