SuperOwl

If you're a motorcyclist, this will make you mad.

Driver jailed over foot in bumper

One guys life ruined and all he gets for his troubles is £300 compensation. I hope that the £300 is a typing error and that there are at least two more zeroes to be added (before the decimal place)

aiglon

And the guy is a law student

Aiglon

Flying Lawyer

The £300 figure may well be correct - the magistrates would have fixed a figure based on the driver's means, not the amount of compensation to which the injured motorcyclist will be entitled.

However, it's not "all he gets for his troubles."
The motorcyclist will receive compensation from the Motor Insurers Bureau. The MIB was formed about 50 years by agreement with the Government to compensate victims of negligent uninsured and untraced motorists. Every insurer underwriting compulsory motor insurance is obliged, by virtue of the Road Traffic Act 1988, to be a member of MIB and to contribute to its funding.

A law student convicted of driving without due care and attention, failing to stop after an accident, driving without insurance, driving with faulty brakes and steering and driving illegally with a provisional licence which he obtained following a previous disqualification?
If he had any aspirations to become a Barrister, he can definitely forget them.
I assume/hope the Law Society (Solicitors' governing body) would take the same view.


Tudor Owen

The penalty of 2 months imprisonment seems rather lenient, but I wasn't there so don't know all the facts/circumstances.

SuperOwl

Flying Lawyer,

Thanks for the above post. I'm glad to hear that the motorcyclist will be compensated more than just the £300 as mentioned on the BBC page. Still, two months for what he did given his previous history is a big let off to me although I'm sure that there are guidelines that the court must adhere to, even if they wanted to lock him up and throw away the key. Having said that, two months is nowhere near enough, given his own solicitors comments.

Cheers

SuperOwl

BOFH

Disgraceful. Shocked and panicked as you might be in decamping, being uninsured/having a dodgy car/no licence as well is the icing on the cake.

The ominous "Volvo estate" should strike a chord with anyone who's ridden a motorcycle.

However, wouldn't you favour significant community service with disabled people and a short stint over a long incarceration? Rather pointless locking up someone if his IQ is (presumably) larger than his shoe size when he could redeem himself somewhat.

BOFH

LordGrumpy

May satisfy the laws.
But it hardly seems just.

airship

Tis indeed a shame that there is no equivalent organisation to the MIB, subscribed to by manufacturers of mines and other devices that often lead to loss of a foot or a limb...

Well, there is one I suppose, to whom I used to contribute but their marketing efforts back-fired ...