‘Special Reasons’ and Driving Licence Disqualification
| Published date | 01 October 1946 |
| Date | 01 October 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201834601000409 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CSpecial Reasons; and Driving Licence
Disqualification
IN
the
recent case of
R.
v.
The
Recorder of Leicester, ex
p.
Gabbitas (Div. Ct., 3rd April, 1946) Lord Goddard,
L.C.J.,
let
fall some observations on the much-vexed
question of
what
are"
special
reasons"
under
the
Road
Traffic Acts for magistrates
not
ordering adisqualification
or endorsement of a driving licence after conviction of
certain offences. There is still lacking, however,
an
authoritative ruling on the subject. The recent case turned
on
the
question of
the
jurisdiction of
quarter
sessions to
remove adisqualification imposed by magistrates
and
has
been previously noted in this
JOURNAL
in this connection.
With
regard to
the
question of " special reasons" the Lord
Chief Justice's dicta are as follows:
" Before parting with this case I do
want
to make one
other observation. We know
that
the
learned Recorder
removed
the
disqualification in this case.
He
says
that
he does
it
and
that
he thinks
that
he can do it,
but
the
Act says
that
it
can be done only for special reasons,
but
he nowhere tells us
the
reasons. I desire to say
that
in
my
opinion
it
is most
important-and
I do hope
that
courts of summary jurisdiction will
take
notice of
this-
that,
if
they
are going to exercise
the
power which
they
have
got
of
not
endorsing a licence or
not
suspending a
licence for special reasons,
they
should
state
in
their
judg-
ment
what
the
special reasons are.
" I do hope also
that
some Police authority
at
some
time when there appear to be no special
reasons-except
that
the
man
is a first offender or something of
that
sort,
which in
my
opinion cannot be a special
reason-will
have
the
courage to demand a Case
and
bring up
to
this Court
the
question as to whether
the
magistrates
had
power to
refuse to disqualify.
"Motoring offences are likely now to increase with
the
increase of cars on
the
road. We hope
that
some
day
we
may
get
back to
the
same degree of freedom of motoring,
v305
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