Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court

I consider myself to be a law abiding citizen, but in 1990's I passed my driving test. Born 13 March 1975 I was a young driver who was not aware of dangers of speeding etc. On occasions of driving my car, I would exceed the speed limit.

On one of the few occasions that I was summons to appear in front the magistrate here, I had to apologise for my behaviour, especially when I was banned from driving for seven days with points on my license for exceeding 70 mph on the motorway. In my defence, I have no defence (but I owned a car without cruise control).

The judge on this occasion took into account that I need my license for work. I was rightly disciplined!

Since obtaining my mobility vehicle in November 2020, (with the help of cruise control/ speed limiter) I have not exceeded the speed limit in a 20, 30, 40, 60 or 70 mph speed limit zone neither do I want to. I have learned my lesson as a young driver and am confident that I will never appear here or any magistrates court on a petty offense (driving offense).

Absolute joke of a court, l had a court hearing the outcome was 5 penalty points which i was later informed via a letter to my house because i didnt want to attend court fair enough all good till then, not anywhere in the letter or elsewhere it mentioned about a financial fine 2 months later i find out after an enforcement agent (CDER) send me a letter saying i have to pay £75 extra because i didnt pay my penalty which i was not informed in anyway, so this court expected me to pay without informing me of the fine great well done! Daylight robbery at its finest! Im now calling them to ask for evidence of a notification of the fine but no ones answering the phone for the past hour absolute rip off!! God help you if you fall in the hands of these because they wont!

They were very patient and thoughtful dealing with my queries. I'm not saying the whole of the judiciary = the milk of human kindness, but my experiences were a good start

Traffic Court - Speeding. All court is unpleasant for defendant so immediately one star. Don't sit in the dreary waiting room. Ask staff to direct you to the public gallery of your court then you can see how they are running things.

If you are challenging I would advise spending maybe £200 on a solicitor but not much more. Everyone I saw got fined (four in a row) including myself. They charge about £600 to £1000 a head and if you are at the point of being in court the fine seems unavoidable unless you somehow beat the charge. And they will do there best to avoid that because its does seem from my one morning there to be a bit of a money -spinner. There is a means test form there. But I didnt even look at it because I was in a fighting mood. But my sense is you have to be really financially vulnerable to get a good break.

Clerk has the best plastic smile - cordial and "helpful" until you challenge a bit.
They really try to coax you to plead guilty - it is creepy!

Like I said I saw fines all- round £600-1000 and they were agreeing monthly payments of no less than £70.

Its a nest of vipers - get cheap representation if you can find it and think you can beat the case.

Abysmal. Told to be there an hour before, only to be seen 2 hours after my appointment time. Treated like a naughty child by all staff. Not one apology for wasting my day due to a police error that I needed to rectify. They continued the error with my name while I was there. It’s not difficult!! And now I have to check if my credit rating is affected, they won’t fix it for me even though it was a police error.
Judges wouldn’t even look at me while I was speaking. Ridiculous, subhuman experience. Do better, it’s 2022, not 1959.

The most dreadful experience. A complete shambles, no customer service and the most confusing and illogical court hearing ever. My basic understanding is a magistrate should display some form of common sense and professional competence to a matter rather than ignoring a basic chain of events. A disgraceful and shameless system and a pathetic attempt to apply consistent and transparent law.

I have bad experience with them .
They give me plenty and 3 points £654 without letting me know before even i moved from old address 4 months before that .
I emailed them to explain ignored me .
I will tray to go there as not fair at all.

They don't give a duck about you! The primary purpose of this is to let you understand that you don't have any rights, and there is no intention to give you any rights.