Relicensing
requirements for Drink Drivers in
Victoria
Most
people convicted of drink driving in
Victoria must lose their drivers
licence. Their driver's licence will be
cancelled and they will be disqualified
from obtaining one for at least 6
months. If your reading is less than
0.05% or you are a first time
offender under 0.07% you might be able to keep your
licence. If your licence is cancelled
by a court or by an on-the-spot fine,
you need to be aware of the steps you
must follow before you will be
permitted to be relicensed.
Summary of relicensing steps
- One
month prior to the end of your disqualification period, attend your
local Magistrates Court and complete the application form for a
relicensing application. A fee of about $70 applies.
- Complete a drink driving education program. You can find an accredited agency here. The course costs approximately $100 - $150 and takes a couple of hours over two nights about a week apart.
- Complete a Licence Restoration Assessment. These are also done by accredited agencies and cost approximately $120 - $180.
- After 28 days you return to court to face the Magistrate and answer questions. If all goes well you will get your licence back.
- Your licence must have a zero condition for 3 years. The Magistrate who hears your application may also impose an interlock condition.
Table
of relicensing
requirements
|
RELICENSE
REQUIREMENT
|
FIRST
OFFENCE1
|
TWO
OR MORE
OFFENCES3
|
|
0.001
- 0.069%
|
0.070
- 0.099%
|
0.100
- 0.149%
|
0.15%
or more
Driving under the Influence,
or non-BAC
offence2
|
|
10
Demerit
Points
|
Only if the Court did not cancel
your licence.
4
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Only if the Court did not cancel
your
licence.5
|
|
Education
Course9
|
Mandatory
if under 25, else will be
required by
court.
|
Mandatory
if under 25, else will be
required by
court.
|
Mandatory
if under 25, else will be
required by
court.
|
Court
will require
it.
|
Court
will require
it.
|
|
Alcohol
assessment
report6
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Maybe6
|
Maybe6
|
|
Licence
Restoration
Assessments
11
|
Only
if you lost your
licence
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Alcohol
Interlock
licence condition (when
re-licensed)
|
No
|
Yes
if under 26,
else
Court
Decides10
|
Yes
if under 26,
else
Court
Decides10
|
Yes
|
|
Licence
Restoration
Order
(LRO)7
|
No
|
Yes,
if offence was after 10
October
2006
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
1
It
is your first offence if in the 10
years prior to the date of your
application you have had only one drink
drive related offence
recorded.
2
Non-BAC
drink driving offences include driving
under the influence of alcohol,
refusing to provide a test sample, and
refusing to stop at a breath testing
station etc. These requirements also
apply to drivers convicted of
manslaughter, negligently causing
serious injury or culpable driving
causing death, where alcohol was a
contributing factor.
3
This
applies if you are guilty of more than
one prior drink drive related offence
within the last 10 years at time of
application. Drink driving related
offences include refusing a breath
test, drug driving, culpable driving
where alcohol was a contributing
factor, and interstate drink driving
offences.
4
If
you were under 0.07% and you kept your
licence then 10 demerit points will be
recorded.
5
If
you were under 0.05% and the court let
you keep your licence 10 demerit points
will be recorded.
6
See
the section on alcohol
assessments
below.
7 Everyone who is granted a LRO
will be subject to a Zero
BAC
condition
for 3 years, or if you have an
Interlock condition the zero condition
lasts until the Interlock condition is
removed, whichever is
longer.
8
If
your licence was cancelled on or before
13 May 2002, the court will decide
whether you have an interlock condition
on your
licence.
9
Even
when the drink driver education course
is not mandataory, most magistrates
will not permit you to be relicenced
unless you have completed a
drink
driving education
course.
10
See
the section on interlocks
below. P-platers and drivers under 26
at the time of their last offence must
have a 6 months interlock
condition.
11
Everyone
who applies for a licence restoration
order must obtain a licence restoration
assessment at an accredited agency
within 28 days of their application
being heard by the court.
Licence
Restoration Orders
Legislation
requires some drivers to go to court to
obtain a Licence Restoration Orders
("LRO") before they can be
relicensed. You are required to obtain
a LRO before VicRoads will let you
apply for a new licence if:
- your reading
was 0.07% or higher, (or if your
offence was prior to 10 October
2006, then 0.10% or
higher)
- your were
convicted of drug driving
(s.49(1)(ba) or driving under the
influence (s.49(1)(a),
or
- it was your
second drink driving related offence
with the last 10 years,
- you were
convicted of refusing a breath test
or some other police
requirement.
One month prior to the end of
your disqualification period you should attend your local court and
make application to be relicensed. There is a fee of about $70.00. If
you were not convicted by a court, the court will not have any record
of you losing your licence, so you better take a printout of your
driving history, or a copy of the fine, so that the court can verify
the date you lost your licence. You should by now have booked yourself
in to do a drink driver education course, as all applicants for
relicencing are expected to have done the course. 28 days notice of the
LRO application must be given to the police. The police used to come to
your house on a surprise visit to check your fridge for alcohol and
give you a random breath test so they can gather material with which to
oppose your relicensing application. They are less likely to do that
since interlocks have come in, but they will still visit you for an
interview where they will inquire about your drinking habits. Although
you are under no obligation to answer any of the questions put to you
by the police, or even answer the door to them, it will assist your
application at court if the police report is favourable. You can
expect them to knock on the door at the address you gave on your
application for relicencing.
Most Magistrates
will require an applicant for a LRO to
undergo a drink driving education
course even if the legislation does not
make this mandatory. This is logical
because the legislation about driver
education courses is woefully
inadequate. Your government is
ridicuously tough on taking away your
licence but doesn't seem to want to
educate drivers of the risks of drink
driving (see table above). So it's a
good idea to do the education course
whether you are obliged to or not. You
should ask the court when you lodge
your LRO application if you have to do
the education course.
All applicants
for a licence restoration order need to
complete a Licence Restoration
Assessment within 28 days prior to the
date of hearing of the LRO application.
The agencies that do the drink driver
education court will also be able to
assist you with that. Cost is around
the $140 - $180 mark.
When you appear
in court you need to show the
certificate of completion of the
education course, and demonstrate to
the court that your consumption of
alcohol has ceased or is greatly
reduced so that you are not likely to
be a danger to other road users. You
will need to give evidence in court and
you can expect to be questioned by the
police and the Magistrate, particularly
about the knowledge you gained during
the driver education course. Many
Magistrates will refuse to grant a LRO
if the applicant has any outstanding
court fines, so it is best to pay these
or convert them to community work
before making your application. Note
that parliament entrusts magistrates
with full discretion as to whether or
not you should be relicenced, but gives
magistrates no discretion about whether
or not to cancel your licence in the
first place.
Drink
Driving Education
Courses
If you have been
found guilty of a drink driving offence
it may be necessary for you to undergo
an accredited drink driving course
either as part of your sentence or as a
pre-condition to being permitted to be
re-licenced:
- All persons
who receive a bond (and keep their
licence) will have a condition
imposed that they complete a drink
driving course
(s.50A(3)).
- All drivers
under the age of 25 years if it is a
first offence and the reading is
less than 0.15% (but for some reason
it is not mandatory if they are
repeat offenders or over 0.15% - go
figure...) (s.50A(1)).
- Most drug
driving offenders under 25 years
old.
- Sometimes
people who do not lose their licence
can be required by VicRoads to do
the course.
Regardless
whether the legislation requires you to
do the course, Magistrates
will refuse to grant a licence
restoration order if the driver has not
done a drink driver education course.
So you had better do one anyway else risk
having your re-licensing application
adjourned while you satisfy this condition.
Call the DIRECT
line on 9416 1818 or toll free 1800 888 236 to find out where you can attend a
drink driver education
course.
Interlock
Conditions
Interlock
devices are breath test machines
hard wired onto the ignition system of
your vehicle. They will not allow the
vehicle to start unless a 0.00% breath
sample is provided. See the
Alcohol
Interlock page for full
details about interlock
conditions.
Z
conditions.
Zero Conditions
A Z (zero)
condition means that you must not have
any measurable alcohol in your blood.
s.52
Road Safety Act.
The following
drivers are subject to Zero
conditions:
- P Platers or
probationary licence
holders.
- L Plate
drivers.
- Drivers of
public tranport vehicles (trains,
trams, buses, taxis)
- Drivers of
large vehicles (trucks) over 15
tonnes.
- All persons
who are subject to an interlock
condition.
- Any driver
who has been granted a licence
restoration order in the past 3
years.
- Anyone who
has no licence.
- Anyone whose
licence has been suspended or
cancelled.
- Commercial
driving instructors in the course of
teaching an unlicenced
person.
- Motor
cyclists who have held a motor cycle
licence for less than 12
months.
Alcohol
Assessments
(This part will not apply to you if
your last drink driving offence was committed on or after
10 October 2006)
Before Interlocks
existed, repeat offenders and people
with very high readings were assessed
to determine their suitability to be
relicenced.
Alcohol
ssessments (under s.50(4B) Road Safety
Act) are relevant these days in the
following cases only:
• A first
offence over 0.15% committed prior to
10 October 2006, or
• A first offence of refusing a
breath test comitted prior to 10
October 2006, or
• Repeat offenders where the most recent
offence was prior to May 2002.
The law requires two alcohol
assessments. The first must be done 12
months prior to you applying to be
relicenced. The second assessment has
to be done in the 28 day period prior
to your relicence application hearing.
That means the two assessments must be
at least 11 months apart. It is
possible to make application to the
court to shorten the time period
between the two assessments. This will
often be the case for people who
suffered immediate licence loss prior
to their court case because they might
have less than 11 months left to serve
at the time they are sentenced.
Any driver is or
will be subject to an interlock
condition does not need to do the two
alcohol assessments. They will have
interlock assessments instead. The
problem is that eligible first time
offenders will not know if a Magistrate
will order an interlock until they get
to court on the relicencing
application. By then you are 12 months
too late to do your first assessment.
Just because you did the two
assessments does not mean you will
avoid getting an interlock condition
imposed.
First offenders who are over 0.15%
or have a non-BAC offence need to
decide if they want to avoid an
interlock or not. If you don't want an
interlock, then you must do the two
assessments. If you are happy to suffer
an interlock, then you might take the
risk of not doing the two assessments
and ask the Magistrate to impose an
interlock instead.
Alcohol assessments are performed by
the same organisations that do the
drink driver education courses. Look
them up in the Yellow Pages, or ask
your local court or police station.
Legal
Assistance
Many drivers have
engaged Sean Hardy to assist them to be
relicensed. Most people attend to the
relicensing process without any need
for legal assistance. If you believe
you need legal assistance to help
ensure you regain your licence then
contact Sean to make an appointment.
The interlock legislation is quite
complicated (see s.50 and s.50AAA of
the Road Safety Act) and if you sit in
court for a few days you will see
Magistrates also struggle to understand
all of the interlock legislation.
Sometimes interlocks are discretionery
in which case it might be possible to
mount arguments to dissuade the court
from imposing an interlock
condition.
Related
Pages:
Interlock
Conditions
Breath
tests
Drink
Driving
Penalties
Related
Sites:
VicRoads
relicensing Page
The
Next Step
VicRoads relicensing brochure
(It
is not quite accurate. See my table
above)
Interlocks
VicRoads brochure
Magistrates
Court
relicensing and interlock orders
(It
is not quite accurate. See my table
above)
State
Govt Interlock Info
|
