|
What is internal review?
For infringement notices that do not
impose any licence loss, it is possible to write to the enforcement
agency (usually the police or the local council) to seek a review of
the infringement notice in the hope that the agency will withdraw the infringement notice and issue a warning instead.
.
When can you apply for internal review?
S.22 Infringements Act
sets out the eligiblity requirements for internal review. You will not
get a favourable review unless you come within s.22. For police
matters, you can apply for
internal review if you qualify for a
warning under the police published
criteria.
You are eligible for
internal review if:
- You have a 1 point speeding offence and have not had any traffic
infringements in the previous 2 years, or
- You have incurred multiple
one point speeding tickets from Freeway fixed speed cameras
within a period of up to 4 weeks, or
- You were homeless, mentally ill, or drug addicted (the "special
circumstances" cases). Special circumstances works best for parking
fines and tollway offences.
- The police have made a mistake in identity and you can show you are not
the person who committed the offence.
- You have some immensely fantastic excuse for committing the offence which you are
sure the police will accept, even though the officer who issued the
ticket could have given you a warning but decided to ticket you anyway.
You will NOT get internal
review just because:
- you believe you did not commit an offence - even if you have excellent evidence to back you up, or
- the penalty will cause you problems.
If
you do qualify for a warning and you are also thinking of going to
court, then you might want to get legal advice about what to write in
your letter to ensure your letter is not detrimental to your court case.
If
you do not qualify for internal review, there is no point seeking
internal review. However, hundreds of people each week make
applications which are destined to fail. If you are certain you will
never
take the matter to court you have nothing to lose by seeking internal
review - but get ready to pay the fine once your review is rejected.
You can not seek review just because you
want to
avoid demerit points or avoid licence loss. There is no hardship test.
If you are ineligible for review, your sob story will not make you
eligible.
Any letter you write to the police imposes
a significant risk of adversely affecting your court case, so you are
usually better off not writing at all if you are thinking of going to
court. Many of my clients ruin their court cases because they wrote
letters to the police. It is rare for a client to write a
useful
letter. One of the few rights you have is to remain silent,
so
please exercise it.
Usually writing to seek
internal review is
a very foolish idea. You will make admissions that you will later
regret if your case goes to court. Unless you meet the eligibility
criteria, your application will most likely fail.
For
parking fines, it is
reasonable to seek internal review if you do not intend to
employ a lawyer to fight your case in court. If you intend to engage a
lawyer, he/she will be disappointed to find that you have written
a letter seeking internal review - it will damage your
case. Internal reviews to councils have a much
better success rate than internal reviews sent to the police. If you
intend to fight the parking fine yourself, or you do not intend to take
it to court, then there is no harm in writing a letter seeking internal
review. Do not be surprised if your application for review achieves
nothing.
.
What to write in your letter seeking
internal review
For police issued infringements, you will improve your chances of getting a
warning if you:
• admit you committed the offence alleged,
• offer a special or exceptional excuse or explanation,
• sound remorseful,
• address the published criteria that qualifies you for a warning or withdrawal.
If you deny committing an offence you will
achieve nothing at all
and you will be invited to fight the case in court.
If you moan about losing your licence,
they will just smile at the effectiveness of their road safety program.
Complaining about the usefulness or
accuracy of cameras will reduce your chances.
Claiming that the police did something unlawful will achieve absolutely nothing.
Making a complaint about the informant before the end of your court case is very unhelpful - so don't do it.
If you disagree with anything
the police are alleging you will be invited to argue about that in court.
If you claim there is a
mistake in your ticket, they will probably send you a new ticket.
If you think the police
issued a ticket for the wrong offence, you can ask them to issue a new
ticket for the correct offence.
If you later decide to
take the case to court, any letter you write will be used against you
in court.
For police matters, you
can send your review application to:
Officer in Charge
Traffic Camera Office
GPO Box 1916
Melbourne 3001
.
Consequences of Seeking Internal Review
There are four possible outcomes to an
internal review:
•
infringement notice confirmed,
• infringement notice withdrawn and a new notice issued,
• infringement notice withdrawn with or without a warning,
• infringement notice withdrawn and a charge and summons
served.
When the infringement notice is confirmed,
you
are usually given extra time to pay the fine. If you are seeking
internal review, there is no value in offering to pay the fine. If you
are happy to pay a fine, then just pay it. Your goal at internal review
is to have the infringement notice withdrawn in which case no fine will
be payable.
It is impossible to get internal review of an infringement notice that
imposes licence loss such as a drink driving infringement or an
excessive speed infringement notice.
.
Related Pages
Police Guidelines for
Internal Review
Review of Multiple Speed Camera Infringements
Work licences and
Daytime Licences
|
