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PERIN Court processes and Civic Compliance

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 aase 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 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 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 offence 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 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). You can apply for revocation of the enforcement order by completing the application form that is provided by the Infringements Court.

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 $125.00 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 imprisonment at a rate of approximately one day per $120.00 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 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 likely to receive a letter telling you your application has been refused. You then have a limited time to respond with a letter that appeals 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 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 was sought to be enforced under the sheriff's warrant. 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  should 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 that you have evidence of filing it with the court. 

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. 

Although the Infringement Court is not an ordinary court, it is still 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 8001.
DX: 210231 Melbourne.
Telephone: (03) 9094 2000. Fax: 9094 2020.

 

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
 

Related Pages:
Speeding
Your Rights
Fines
Demerit Points

Related Links:
Dept of Justice Infringements Court
Legal Aid's PERIN Court Brochure .pdf

 

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