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The
Infringements Court
What
is the Infringements
Court?
The
Infringements
Court
is a branch of the Magistrates Court of
Victoria. It's primary purpose is to
make court orders to enforce the
payment of fines. It is not a court
which hears disputes over infringement
notices. Those disputes are dealt with
by objecting
to your fine
to have the case referred to a
Magistrates Court, or by seeking
revocation of an enforcement
order. The infringements Court is
not a court in the traditional sense.
It is an administrative division of the
Department of Justice. It does not make
judicial decisions. There are no
Magistrates, no hearings, no witnesses,
no defendants or prosecutors. There is
just a fine recorded on a computer
system and it gets shuffled from one
area to another as the default
continues. If you have a question about
your fine, you should first contact
Civic
Compliance,
not the Infringements Court.
Prior to July 2006 the Infringements
Court was known as the PERIN
Court.
What
is the infringement enforcement
process?
Fine
is issued
There
are over 100 government authorities
that are authorised to issue
on-the-spot fines in the form of
infringement notices and penalty
notices. If a person pays the penalty
shown on an infringement notice, the
matter comes to an end. No further
proceedings may be taken in respect of
the offence. No conviction is recorded
unless it is a licence loss
infringement notice.
If
an infringement notice suspends or
cancels the person's driver's licence,
the person must lodge an objection
within 28 days of the date of the
notice if they wish to avoid licence
loss or challenge the matter in court. It also stops a conviction being
recorded against them for the offence
alleged in the notice. The licence loss
aspect is enforced by VicRoads. The
financial penalty component is enforced
at the Infringements Court. It is not
possible to contest any part of a
licence loss infringement notice unless
the driver sends in an objection to the
notice within 28 days of the date the
notice was served.
Reminder Letter
When
a person fails to pay within time a fine that does not carry licence
loss (such as a parking fine, most traffic fines or a litter fine) the
person is sent a reminder notice by a quasi-government agency called
Civic Compliance. Civic Compliance is a debt collection agency operated
for the government by Serco Ltd, a private company. A person who
receives a reminder letter is given another 28 days to pay the penalty
together with a small recovery fee added on top. If the person wants to
challenge the infringement offence they need to elect within the
permitted time to have the matter heard and determined in court.
Instructions on how to send in your election to go to court can be
found on the reverse of the infringement notice or the back of the
reminder letter. If the election is given within time (i.e. before an
enforcement order is made), the infringement notice will be withdrawn
and a charge and summons will be served for the alleged offence. If the
enforcement agency (e.g. the police or a council) wishes to prosecute
the offender the agency must file and serve a charge and summons. In
the majority of cases the charge must be filed at court within 12
months of the date of the offence.
Enforcement
Order made
A
person who fails to pay the fine and fails to lodge an election to take
the infringement to court risks having the penalty enforced by way of
enforcement order. Civic Compliance will refer the infringement penalty
to the Infringements Court for an enforcement order to be made. The
offender is then sent a letter advising them
that the enforcement order has been made. More costs will then be
incurred and the offender will be asked to pay the infringement penalty
and costs
within a specified time or else a warrant will be issued to recover the
debt. The enforcement order is usually made about two months after the
reminder
letter is sent. The making of an enforcement order also causes demerit
points to accrue in respect of many traffic offences. Sometimes an
enforcement order is made even though the person has elected to take
the matter to court, in which case it is very important to get some
expert legal advice.
If you wish to contest an infringement notice but
you are too late to elect to take it to court because an enforcement
order has been made, you will need to apply for revocation of the
enforcement order. An enforcement order can be revoked if the
warrant has not yet been executed (i.e. provided the sheriff has not
seized property or arrested you under a penalty enforcement warrant).
You can apply for revocation of the enforcement order by completing the
application form that is provided by the Infringements Court, or an
application for revocation can be lodged through your lawyer. I often see clients
with debts exceeding $100,000 arising from long term accumulation of
mainly tollway infringements. By seeing a lawyer promptly prior to being arrested they can save tens of thousands of dollars.
Sheriff's
Warrant issued
If
the enforcement order remains unpaid,
the agency that issued the fine will
cause the Infringements Court to issue
a warrant to recover the debt. The
warrant directs the Sheriff to seize
and sell the person's property to raise
sufficient money to pay the debt, or
alternatively to arrest the person and
detain the person for so many days as
is required to expiate the penalty at
the rate of one day of imprisonment for
each $125.00 of debt.
Sheriff's Warrant Executed
When
the sheriff knocks on a person's door to execute the warrant the
sheriff will give the person 7 days to pay the debt before carting away
his/her property or - more likely - arresting the person.
Property seized by the sheriff is eventually sold by public auction if
the debtor continues to fail to pay the debt. If the sheriff arrests
you, you will be bailed to attend court on a date in about a month's
time. You should see a lawyer if you want help to reduce the debt
and/or manage the repayments and/or avoid imprisonment. The
higher
the debt, the greater the advantages you will get by using a
lawyer and the greater the money you will save.
It is much better for you if you make an application for revocation of the enforcement orders
before the sheriff arrests you or seizes your assets. If the sheriff
gives you a "Seven Day Notice", it means they are going to come and
arrest you after 7 days, so you need to see a lawyer fast. Often the
sherriff will encourage you to waive the 7 day period and will claim
that the best thing for you is to be arrested. Do not accept the
sheriff's offer and advice. Making an application for revocation of the enforcement orders is a better alternative.
When the
sheriff seizes a person's property, the
sheriff normally places a sticker on
the property claiming legal or
"walking" possession of the property.
The sheriff leaves the property in the
physical possession of the debtor for 7
days or so and provides the debtor a
chance to pay the debt or come to an acceptable
arrangement. The debtor is not allowed
to deal with the property in any way
that is inconsistent with the right of
the sheriff to remove the property and
sell it.
If
you get arrested, the sheriff will bail you to attend a Magistrates
Court at a Penalty Enforcement Warrant hearing. At this hearing the
court wants to know what you are going to do about paying off the debt.
You can apply for a reduction in the debt which should succeed if you
have a good explanation or exceptional circumstances. Often very
significant reductions can be achieved, especially if special circumstances
(homelessness, drug addiction, mental health problems) apply. The court
will usually allow you time to pay or it will make an instalment order.
The court also has power to sentence you to a term of imprisonment at a
rate of approximately one day per $125.00 of debt. You can also be
order to do community work in place of imprisonment. If an instalment
order is made, the court will usually order you to serve a jail term in
respect of the balance of the debt if you default in making any
payment. The court will not order community work if the total debt is
over $10,000.
Revocation of Enforcement Orders
When
a person ignores many enforcement
orders over a long period of time, the
day the sheriff eventually catches up
with them the debt can be tens of
thousands of dollars, and the number of
weeks or months in prison to 'pay' off
the debt can be frightening. It is the
sheriff's warrant that is empowering
the sheriff to seize property or make
an arrest, and this warrant is founded
on the enforcement order. The
enforcement order can be revoked by the
Infringements Court at any time prior
to the warrant being executed (prior to
payment of money, seizure of goods or
arrest of a person). A person in this
position might be advised to seek
revocation of the enforcement orders
which if successful, will see the
warrants founded upon them
disappear.
If
the registrar grants the application for revocation, the enforcement
order is cancelled and the Infringement Court refers the matter back to
the agency that issued the fine, and they will have to take steps to
prosecute the person in court by serving a charge and summons. However,
the registrar of the Infringements Court is unaccustomed to granting
applications for revocation of an enforcement order. You are very likely to
receive a letter telling you your application has been refused. You
then have 6 weeks to appeal against
the registrar's refusal to revoke the enforcement order. The revocation
application is then referred to a Magistrate where it has a reasonably
good chance of succeeding. If your application is successful the
enforcement order is revoked. The infringement notice then becomes the
charge before the court. The person becomes a defendant in the court case and can plead
guilty or not guilty or nominate the driver etc. The matter proceeds in
the same manner as any other criminal case before the court. It is
possible to plead guilty and ask the court to impose an aggregate
penalty significantly less than what the sheriff was chasing. It is also possible to defend the charges
successfully.
In
my experience, close to half of the paperwork that my clients lodge at
the Infringements Court is either lost or ignored. Numerous
clients have hand delivered or posted applications for revocation and
never heard a response. Upon inquiring later, they are told that the
application either was not received or was dealt with 2 months ago and
refused. I recommend you attend the Infringements Court in
person with two copies of every document you lodge there, and request
the Court to date stamp your file copy of the document so you have
evidence of filing it with the court. It will also come in handy to show the sheriff if he knocks on your door.
People
can save many thousands of dollars in fines, and avoid significant jail
terms by addressing Infringement Court problems in a strategic and
informed manner. It is possible to pay fines by instalments, convert
fines to community work and in some cases avoid suffering any penalty
at all. Most of the steps have time deadlines which must be met. It is
important to know what the final goal is and exactly what steps need to
be taken and which path to follow in order to get there. You should
persevere notwithstanding the negative feedback you experience from the
Infringements Court or the prosecuting agency.
Although
the Infringements Court is not an ordinary court, it is still useful to
have a lawyer assist you with a revocation application or when an
infringement is referred to open court. Often people represent
themselves, but your chances of success will improve greatly and your
stress levals will reduce dramatically if you get proper legal
assistance. You
might think you can not afford a lawyer if you can't even pay the
fines, but usually a lawyer will pay for themselves many times over in
getting your debt reduced or waived. It would be wrong to assume
that everything that happens within the
Infringement system has been done
properly.
Getting legal assistance for your Revocation Application
In
cases where an enforcement order has caused demerit points to accrue,
a revocation application can help remove the points and give you a
chance to defend the case or nominate the driver.
In
cases where your outstanding
fines exceed $8,000.00 it is wise to engage a lawyer to help make a
revocation of enforcement order application. The total cost of having a
lawyer do the entire application and appeal process including the
appearances at court starts at about $2,400.00 and can increase with
the number of enforcement orders. When the debt exceeds $8,000.00 I
guarantee that none of my clients are worse off financially as a result
of making the application - which means you will save more than you
spend. My goal is to reduce your debt by 50% to 95%. I will
obtain an instalment order which lets you pay off the the balance of
the debt at an affordable rate - often over several years. The revocation process usually takes many months to reach the day when your case is presented to a magistrate.
To get legal assistance you will need to:
- make an appointment for a conference,
- if
it is a debt problem then prior to the conference, obtain a print of
all your outstanding Warrants and Orders - then bring the list to the
conference. You can obtain the list from Civic Compliance Victoria at
277 William Street, Melbourne (they close at 6PM, so it is possible to
attend there immediately prior to seeing me),
- if it is a points problem, obtain from VicRoads a copy of your full demerit points history,
- be able to pay up to $1000 in legal fees in the first month, and the balance prior to the hearing in about 4 months time,
- if
you have mental health problems, start thinking about getting medical
reports (e.g. psych reports) to support your application.
Alternatively,
you could try to do your own application for revocation and come and
see me when you are fed up with the process!
Contacting
the Infringements
Court
Infringments Court
Level 1, 444 Swanston Street,
Carlton, Vic. 3053.
P.O. Box 14487, Melbourne City Mail
Centre, Melbourne 8001.
DX: 210231 Melbourne.
Telephone: (03) 9094 2000. Fax: 9094
2020.
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Civic Compliance
Victoria
- Address: Level 1, 277 William
Street, Melbourne
- GPO Box 1916
Melbourne VIC 3001
- Penalty Notice enquiries: (03)
9200 8111
- Country callers (free call) 1800
150 410
Sheriff's Office Enquiries: (03)
9200 8222
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