12 Points On Your Licence

Endorsement codes and penalty points

All endorsable offences 12 points and disqualifications will be recorded on your driving licence.

12 points and endorsements are written onto your paper licence or the paper counterpart to your photocard licence, and remain on your licence for a minimum period of four years. Depending on the offence this may be four years from the date of the offence or four years from the date of conviction.

For drink or drug-driving, causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, or causing death by careless driving and failing to provide a specimen, the endorsement which is 12 points will stay on your licence for 11 years from the date of conviction.

12 Points / Totting Up Ban

Gaining too many penalty points will often lead to a disqualification and very few of us realise that the loss of our licence will change our lives to a massive extent. The loss of employment is a very real possibility, and finding a new job can become very difficult. The day to day tasks that you need a car for all of a sudden become unachievable. The cost of insurance after a six month ban is often shockingly high.

Most traffic violations carry penalty points rather than a disqualification. In today’s society we are required to drive more and more and, unfortunately, this makes it increasingly difficult to maintain a clean driving licence, which is free of penalty points.

When a driver’s licence is endorsed with 12  points or more within a 3 year period, the Court must order the driver to be disqualified for a minimum period of 6 months.

12 Points are relevant from the date of offence to offence and not from the date of conviction. This means that delaying the Court’s process by dragging the matter out will not avoid a disqualification under the “totting up” regime.

Disqualification from driving
Once you accumulate 12  points on your licence the Magistrates have to consider disqualifying you from driving. This is known as ‘totting up’. The minimum period of disqualification is 6 months. An experienced motoring solicitor has several options at their disposal to help you to avoid disqualification for totting up… read more here

To many people this would mean the loss of their job, especially if they have to hold a valid driving licence as part of their contract of employment. The law allows a person to put forward a case of ‘Excessive Hardship’, in these circumstances. If accepted by the court this usually means no disqualification at all or in some cases a much shorter period than the mandatory 6 months.