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The
Infringements Court
(Formerly
the PERIN
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 at least defer it in the short
term). 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.
Courtesy
Letter
When
a person fails to pay a fine (such as a
parking fine, speed camera fine, drink
driving fine or litter fine) within the
time allowed on the notice, the person
is sent a reminder notice called a
Courtesy Letter by a quasi-government
agency called Civic Compliance. Civic
Compliance is a debt collection agency
operated for the government by Tenix
Ltd, a private company. A person who
receives a courtesy letter is given
another 28 days to pay the penalty
together with a small amount of
recovery fees added on top. If the
person does not want to have the
penalty enforced against them (maybe
because they dispute the alleged
offence or are prepared to challenge
the allegation in court) they need to
give notice that they decline to be
dealt with under the Infringement Court
system. This is usually done by sending
a written objection to either the
agency that issued the fine or to Civic
Compliance, whichever the infringement
notice requires. There should be
instructions on the reverse of the
infringement notice which state how
objection can be made. If notice of
objection is given, the infringement
notice is automatically cancelled and
can no longer be enforced. If the
agency wishes to pursue the offender
the agency must serve a charge and
summons to prosecute the offender in
the Magistrates Court. In the majority
of cases the charge must be issued
within 12 months of the date of the
offence.
Enforcement
Order made
A
person who fails to pay the fine and
fails to lodge any objection to the
courtesy letter 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 in respect of the
penalty. The person is then sent a
letter advising them that the
enforcement order has been made, that
more costs have been incurred and they
must now pay the infringement penalty
and costs within a specified time or
else a warrant will be issued to
recover the debt. This usually takes
place about two months after the
courtesy letter is sent. The making of
an enforcement order also causes
demerit points to accrue in respect of
some traffic offences. Sometimes an
enforcement order is made even though
the person has given notice of
objection, in which case it is very
important to get some expert legal
advice. An enforcement order can be set
aside up until the time that a warrant
is executed (i.e. provided the sheriff
has not seized property or arrested you
under a penalty enforcement
warrant).
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 expedite the penalty at
the rate of one day of imprisonment for
each $100.00 of debt.
Warrant
Executed
When
the sheriff knocks on the 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 if there is insufficient property
before arresting the person. Property
seized by the sheriff is eventually
sold by public auction if the debtor
continues to fail to pay the debt. Jail
is always a last resort, and the person
is usually assessed to see if they are
suitable to perform community work
instead of going to prison. 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 as to allow the debtor a
chance to pay the debt or come to some
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. After a person is arrested
they are taken to court where a
Magistrate will sentence the person to
a term of imprisonement at a rate of
approximately one day per $100.00 of
debt unless circumstances allow
community work to be done in place of
imprisonment. The court will not order
community work when the total debt is
over $10,000. If community work is not
allowed, imprisonment will very likely
be the result unless a defendant
satisfies the court that the reason for
the default in payment is that he or
she was financially incapable of paying
the fines.
The
User Experience
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 the same manner as if an
objection had been made at the time of
the Courtesy Letter. However, the
registrar of the Infringements Court is
unaccustomed to granting applications
for revocation of an enforcement order. A refusal of the
registrar to allow a revocation of
enforcement order can be appealed to a
Magistrate in a real Magistrates
Court. Here the revocation application
has a better chance of succeeding. If
it is successful, the matter proceeds
before the Magistrates Court as a
criminal hearing. The infringement
notice becomes the charge. The person
becomes a defendant and can plead
guilty or not guilty, and 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
was sought to be enforced under the
sheriff's warrant. It is also possible
to defend the charges
successfully.
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
installments, 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. A
detailed and informative
brochure
on the PERIN
system
is available for download from Legal
Aid, which applies to the Infringement
Court system.
Although
the Infringement Court is not an
ordinary court, it can still be useful
to have a lawyer assist you if you wish
to defend or challenge proceedings at
the Infringement Court or when an
infringement is referred to open court.
Often people represent themselves, but
your chances improve greatly if you
have proper legal assistance. A lawyer
can take care of all the steps
involved, and importantly can advise
you how to take advantage of situations
if you fall through the gaps when the
system does not operate the way it was
designed. It would be wrong to assume
that everything that happens within the
Infringement system has been done
properly. It is not uncommon,
especially given the huge volume of
infringements that get processed each
day, for enforcement agencies and Civic
Compliance to "overlook" the rights of
the people they are supposed to serve.
The Infringement Court system is
designed with quantity in mind, not
quality.
Contacting
the Infringements Court
Infringments Court
Level 1, 444 Swanston Street,
Carlton, Vic. 3053
P.O. Box 14487, Melbourne City Mail
Centre, Melbourne.
DX: 210231 Melbourne.
Telephone: (03) 9094 2000. Fax: 9094
2020.
-
Civic Compliance
Victoria
- Address: Level 1, 277 William
Street, Melbourne
- PO Box 14487
- Melbourne City Mail Centre,
8001
- Penalty Notice enquiries: (03)
9200 8111
- Country callers (free call) 1800
150 410
Sheriff's Office Enquiries: (03)
9200 8222
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