This is defined under Section 34 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 as:
“Where a person is convicted of an offence involving obligatory disqualification, the court must order him to be disqualified for such period not less than twelve months as the court thinks fit unless the court for special reasons thinks fit to order him to be disqualified for a shorter period or not to order him to be disqualified”.
These are arguments where the accused gives evidence under oath that under the circumstances it would not be appropriate to impose penalty points or disqualification. The accused is GUILTY of the offence but the Magistrates may decide to not endorse or disqualify if such special reasons are found.
The most commonly used special reason is that of emergency. E.g. a medical emergency occurs causing the driver to speed excessively. Their total points after the speeding endorsement would reach 12 points. The special reasons would avoid the endorsement of the points on their licence. This is different to exceptional hardship.
To qualify as a special reason the following criteria must be fulfilled:
- The special reason must be a mitigating or extenuating circumstance
- It must not amount to a defence against the allegation
- It must be directly connected to the commission of the offence
- It must be something that the Court ought to take into consideration when deciding what punishment to impose.