RMNJ Criminal Law Department Transparency Rules 2018

The Solicitors Regulation Authority require us to comply with certain regulations concerning information provided to potential clients who wish to be represented in certain motoring matters.

The Transparency Rules relate to cases that can only be tried in the Magistrate's Court which are dealt with in one hearing. These are Summary only motoring offences under Part I of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and s89 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.

For Magistrates and Crown Court cases that are not covered by these regulations and where legal aid is unobtainable, we will give a written estimate of our charges before you decide to instruct us and before you incur any costs.

This is how the RMNJ Solicitors Criminal law department complies with the Transparency Regulations relating to single hearing Magistrates only motoring matters under the above Acts:

The wording of the rules we have to comply with and our responses are below.


Costs information:

The total cost of the service

We will undertake these cases for a fixed fee of £400 plus VAT and disbursements.

Disbursements are expenses we have to pay out on your behalf. We will tell you what these are in advance.

Travel longer than 30 minutes is charged at £50 per hour plus VAT.

The experience and qualifications of anyone carrying out the work and of their supervisors

All you need to do is click on the "staff" tab in our criminal law department web pages and this information is available for you, together with our photographs.

A description of and cost of any likely disbursements

If there are any disbursements we will discuss these with you beforehand so you know exactly what the cost will be. Note: we don't make a profit on disbursements, we only charge you the actual cost we have paid for the expenditure agreed by you in advance.

Whether any fees or disbursements attract VAT and the amount

VAT is charged for our services but not for disbursements.

Details of what services are included in the price displayed including key stages of the matter and likely timescales for each stage and details of any service that might reasonably be expected to be included in the price displayed but are not


Our Service

The service we give in such cases includes the following:

Key Stages

The key stages of your matter are based on the presumption that you have entered a guilty plea and have a date for your hearing.


Complaints Information:

Our complaints handling procedure including details of how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority is all in the Client Care section of our web site, a link to which is on every page of our website by clicking on "client care".


Regulatory Information:

RMNJ is required to provide in a prominent place on its website its Solicitors Regulation Authority number and the Solicitors Regulation Authority's "digital badge".

RMNJ's Solicitors Regulation Authority number and its "digital badge" is to be published on the footer of every page of the web site. Note: At time of preparation of this note, November 2018, details of the "digital badge" had not been released by Solicitors Regulation Authority.

RMNJ's letterhead and emails must show its Solicitors Regulation Authority authorisation number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority".

RMNJ's letterhead and email correspondence shows this information in the footer of both formats.