ByLawyers News and Updates

Drink driving – Criminal NSW

by

In a small but significant change to drink driving laws, from 20 May 2019 offenders charged with first time, low range prescribed concentration of alcohol offences in NSW will be fined and have their licence suspended immediately for three months, rather than receive a Court Attendance Notice.

This results in such offenders needing to make a court election if they wish to ask the court to dismiss the charge and not record a conviction under s 10 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.

It will also be available to such offenders to make a licence appeal to the Local Court, if they seek to avoid or reduce the period of suspension. A licence appeal can only be made after conviction. The offender has a conviction recorded either by paying the fine in the first instance, or by the court imposing a conviction where a court election is made and no section 10 dismissal is granted.

This means that from now on lawyers are unlikely to see some first time, low range PCA offenders at all, or at least not until after they have paid their fine and are seeking to appeal their licence suspension. As a licence appeal is a slightly different advocacy exercise to a drink driving plea, these changes will involve a re-calibration of the approach to advising and appearing for clients in first time, low range drink driving cases.

For more information, including the full details of penalties for drink driving offences which appear in the Appendix at the end of the commentary, see the By Lawyers Traffic Offences guide.

Criminal & Traffic Law – Finalisation letters – NSW

by

Enhancements to finalisation letters

The finalisation letters in the By Lawyers Criminal and Traffic Guides (NSW) have been enhanced.

The finalisation letters now cover all sentencing outcomes, including Community Correction Orders.

There are now separate finalisation letters in the Traffic guide for drink driving offences, which include an Interlock order as a sentencing outcome, and for general offences, which do not include the Interlock outcome.

In both guides there is now also a separate letter dealing with deferral of sentence under s 11 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.

Feedback regarding By Lawyers content

This enhancement was completed as a response to client feedback. At By Lawyers we love to receive feedback from our subscribers and we really appreciate busy practitioners taking the time to let us know what they need from our content.

We are always available via email: askus@bylawyers.com.au.

For LEAP users with By Lawyers as a companion product, there are two additional ways to provide feedback:

  • When in a LEAP matter, in the top right hand corner of the screen there is a blue question mark icon. Clicking on it reveals a drop-down box for the LEAP Community pages – one of these is ‘Help, support and feedback’. There is also a By Lawyers tab on the LEAP Community page which provides helpful information about using By Lawyers content.
  • When using any precedent in LEAP there is  a ‘Provide Feedback’ button in the ribbon at the top of the document, next to ‘Save to matter as PDF’. This opens to a feedback form, where any issues or suggestions regarding the precedent can be provided. Where such feedback relates to a By Lawyers precedent, LEAP send it on to us and we will always address it promptly, directly with the user.

By Lawyers have often introduced new precedents or enhanced our commentaries as a result of subscriber suggestions. Whenever we see a need for the suggested additions or amendments we are happy to oblige, so as to benefit not only the firm that made the request but all of our other users as well. Sometimes our subscribers will not only identify an issue, such as a new precedent that might be needed, but they will also provide us with the resolution – a precedent they have developed themselves and are happy for us to publish for the assistance of others. The law is, after all, a noble profession and helping each other in a collegiate way is one of the hallmarks of being a lawyer.

Our mission at By Lawyers is to help our subscribers enjoy practice more. Responding to feedback is one of the ways we do it.

Criminal – sentencing – QLD – Commentary added on drug and alcohol treatment orders

by

Queensland has introduced special drug and alcohol sentencing options where the Court determines the offender and the community would benefit more from the offender participating in a rehabilitation and treatment program than from imprisonment.

Commentary explaining the availability and operation of drug and alcohol treatment orders has been added to the By Lawyers Criminal Magistrates’ Court Guide and the By Lawyers Traffic Offences Guide.

These specific drug and alcohol treatment orders are provided for under Part 8A of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 and are available for certain offenders whose criminal behaviour is linked to their severe drug or alcohol use.  A treatment order is comprised of two parts – a custodial part with a term of imprisonment of up to four years which is wholly suspended and a rehabilitation part of at least two years that requires compliance with core conditions and completion of a treatment program.

At this stage the new provisions are only available in Brisbane, but it is intended that the program is developed and spreads to other areas.

These amendments bring Queensland in to line with other states, making supervised rehabilitation a formal part of the sentencing regime.

Connect with us