Amendments to Bermuda's demerit point system for traffic offences will be tabled in Parliament in November, according to Attorney General Kim Wilson.

The Royal Gazette reported on Monday how the system has yet to be rewritten by lawmakers, six months after it was condemned as a "manifest injustice" by the Court of Appeal.

Defence lawyer and recently defected UBP MP Shawn Crockwell said the legislation means some Bermuda motorists have been unfairly penalised in comparison to their UK counterparts.

Each traffic conviction in Bermuda results in two to 12 demerit points being added to a person's record. Every two years the slate is wiped clean. If an individual accumulates 12 points during a two-year period their driving license is revoked.

According to Mr. Crockwell, not all traffic offences in the UK attract demerit points. In Bermuda they are mandatory for all traffic offences. In the UK there is the option not to impose demerit points on top of a driving ban.

Drivers there who have points on their record and then get a ban for another offence can have the points wiped clean from their record in the light of the ban. And if a UK court imposes a disqualification as a result of too many demerit points, those points fall away and the slate is clean.

In Bermuda, however, there is no provision for drivers who are banned to have their points wiped away. This means some motorists are punished twice once by being handed a ban for an offence such as impaired driving, and for a second time by having demerit points imposed on top of that.

The result is that local motorists can end up being put off the roads for many months longer than a UK driver would for the same offence having to serve out their driving ban and then wait for their penalty points to expire.

Appeal Court President Edward Zacca issued a written judgement in March in the case of driver Richard Cox, who complained about the system. In it, he said it appears that Bermuda's lawmakers did not think through the consequences of the legislation.

He said he hoped the legislature would reconsider the law in order to avoid "what appear to be unintended consequences and manifest injustice".

Responding to a request for an update, Sen. Wilson told The Royal Gazette in an e-mail this week: "There will be amendments to the Traffic Offences Penalties Act tabled in November, which will address the anomalies which currently exist with respect to the demerit system."

However, she did not respond to a request for further information on how the act will be changed, and what effect this will have.