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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 no
warrant has 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
have many clients
with debts exceeding $100,000
(arising from long term
accumulation of
tollway infringements) who end
up being tens of thousands of
dollars
better off after getting legal
advice early rather than waiting
to be arrested by the
sheriff.
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. If your debt
exceeds $8,000 it is economical and
sensible to have a lawyer handle
it. 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. 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
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