A couple of points,
firstly the circumstances that Ashman solicitors are referring to is for speed awareness courses, which are on hold.
They suggest asking for the court to adjourn a case because the course MIGHT come back on offer.
This is NOT anything to do with abuse of process because the course is DISCRETIONAL for the police to offer, nothing to do with the court. If the course is not available then the police cannot offer it, but they would offer a fixed penalty and only if you refuse that would it go to court. I would suggest nt risking a court appearance for a course that may or may not appear in the timeframe there is to complete a speed course (nrmally 4 months from the date of the offence.
Secondly the offer of a Drink Drive Rehabilitation course is known as an ancillary order, so something that does not feature as a part of the sentence of the court. (That is why it is not compulsory to attend, the court have only OFFERED a course)
Abuse of process is not something that can be alleged after a case has been concluded, it is just that - abuse of a process under way, not something that had already finished.
What the magistrates have to do is decide on the length of the ban they are going to give you, anyone, course or not. Then they decide if they want to offer the course to reduce the ban if you do complete it.
What the magistrates are NOT allowed to do is to ask if you want to do a course, then inflate the length of the ban so that the reduction only takes you down to what they really want you to do.
In other words, there has been no Abuse of Process because you had a hearing, you had the appropriate ban, but you (may) have lost out on a reduction they says you could do, if available, and if you did it.
If you booked a course and it didn’t go ahead then of course you are entitled to the money back for that course, but that is all, there is no redress on the court.
One final example.... the magistrates gave you a 12 month ban, reduced to 9 if you complete an optional course. The courses are not available, you cannot say it is an abuse of process by the court because they could not have given you a 9 month ban, because the law says the minimum ban for drink driving is 12 months....
On the question of extending the completion date, I agree that the DVSA could do something about this if they chose to, but that is quite limited. On a 12 month ban, the completion date is normally set at 7 months, to allow time for the application to be made 8 weeks before to get the 3 month reduction. If they allowed a completion date at 9 months, with the 8 weeks for the application there would only be the scope for a 1 month reduction in your ban.
Things will get back to some sort of normality in a few months, so given the limited scope to help a few people for a short time, I don’t think DVSA will actually get round to issuing an amendment to the legislation that dictates the completion date.