Drink and Drug Drive Cases Notes

A MOST USEFUL REFERENCE POINT FOR POLICE, THE PROSECUTION, THE DEFENCE AND LEGAL ADVISERS

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, "The Barrister"

The proven excellence of this title from Wildy, Simmonds and Hill Publishing is shown by the need for a reprint in 2017 of the third edition which appeared in 2015. Case law is always "moving forward" as the current expression runs so Pauline Callow has included 75 new cases for this edition summarising drink and drug driving cases since 1984.

As the author says, "many thousands of people are prosecuted each year for drink and drug driving offences. The legislation favours the prosecution in a number of ways, for example, by requiring those under investigation to give evidence against themselves in the form of specimens of breath, blood or urine, but also affords certain safeguards to suspects. The conviction rate is exceptionally high, and the provisions have given rise to a wealth of case law."

The case summaries cover a large number of cases on drink driving, and fewer cases on drug driving, which have come before the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords and, in one instance, the UK Supreme Court.

In fact, over six hundred judgments are summarized giving us the bulk of the case law. Each "note" is presented as a short statement of the facts of the case, the question(s) put to the appeal court and an extract from the judgment. Callow intends the notes to provide a broad outline of the trends in the case law and as starting points for readers seeking guidance on particular issues which is the essence of the book.

The third edition for 2015 covers notes of some seventy-five cases decided since the second edition was published and all advocates will find the work of tremendous assistance in court. Callow says that "the themes running through the new cases include the interpretation of the provisions on reasonable cause to believe that the breath analysis device has not produced a reliable indication of the suspect's breath alcohol level, and on the application of the Criminal Procedure Rules to proceedings for drink and drug driving".

The so-called "statutory option" has gone so section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, creating new offences of driving, attempting to drive, and in charge, with a concentration of a specified controlled drug above a specified limit, has come into force. The offences are framed in much the same terms of the excess alcohol offences, but testing will be by the analysis of blood or urine only.

"While much of the case law concerning drink-driving will be relevant, the new provisions will no doubt give rise to their own body of case law in due time", says Callow. Drink and Drug Drive Case Notes was first published, as Drink Drive Case Notes, as a product of collaboration between Lion Laboratories – the manufacturers of much of the breath-testing equipment used in the UK and throughout the world – and Pauline Callow.

The book was published on 29th June 2015.