Guides

Read before your court date

Three written guides to parts of a driver licence appeal in New South Wales. Each one shows you where to check it yourself.

General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.

Each guide takes one part of a driver licence appeal in New South Wales, explains how it actually works, and points to the legislation or the court’s own page so you can read the source rather than take our word for it.

They are general information rather than advice about your notice. If you are looking for a type of matter instead of a topic, start with demerit suspension, immediate suspension, P and L plate drivers, Local Court appeals, habitual traffic offender matters or interlock orders. How it works sets out what a consultation involves.

If a notice has just arrived

Read this one first. An appeal has to be lodged within the period stated on your notice, and that period does not pause while you decide what to do.

How to read a suspension notice

For anyone holding a letter they do not fully understand. It explains why the type of notice decides your options, what to find on the page, and why the period that applies to you comes from your own notice.

Before the hearing

A licence appeal is decided on the material before the court. These two guides are about what that material should contain.

What a magistrate actually considers

For anyone deciding whether to appeal. It explains what the court can order, including substituting a shorter period, how your driving record is read, and arguments that are not decided on this appeal.

Driving for work: what to prepare

For anyone whose job depends on driving. It sets out what an employer letter should say, what to do if you are self-employed, how to evidence distance and transport, and three things to avoid.

What these guides are

Each guide describes how one part of the licence appeal system generally works. It is not advice about your notice and it cannot be, because every licence question turns on facts a web page does not know: which sanction you have, what date is on it, what your record says and what the suspension would actually cost you.

Where a period is set by legislation, a guide states it and tells you which date it runs from. Where a figure depends on your own notice, or is set by a body that revises it — a suspension length, a demerit total, a fee — we link to the page carrying the current one instead of printing something that will quietly go out of date. The period that applies to you is on your notice.

Every guide lists the official sources it was written from. Where a source and a guide disagree, the source is right.

How to check something for yourself

These four sources are where the guides are written from. If one of them no longer matches what a guide says, follow the source, and we would be glad to be told so the guide can be corrected.

NSW legislation, for the law itself. The Road Transport Act 2013 governs licensing, suspension, disqualification, appeals and the interlock program.
The Local Court, for the appeal itself. Its driving and traffic page states when you may appeal a licence decision to it, and its forms page carries the applications and the current fees.
NSW Government and Service NSW, for demerit points, suspensions, good behaviour periods and the interlock program. Start at demerit points, penalties and offences, and check your own balance through Service NSW.
Your own notice, for the dates. No general page can tell you when your period started or when it ends. That comes from the document in front of you.

The law changes, and so do the numbers

Road transport law in New South Wales is amended from time to time. The abolition of the habitual traffic offender scheme is one example: declarations can no longer be made, but declarations made before the change were preserved and still affect people today. An article written before that change reads much like one written after it.

The figures move more often than the law does. Appeal periods, demerit thresholds, suspension lengths, interlock periods and court filing fees are all set and revised elsewhere, which is why they are not printed here.

Where a page shows the date it was last reviewed, treat that date as the limit of what we are telling you. Check the official sources listed on each page for the current position.

Recently published: First steps after a NSW licence suspension notice. More in Licence suspensions.

Have these to hand

The guides are much easier to use with your own papers beside you. In licence matters it is the notice and the record that decide what you can still do.

The notice, both sides, and the date you received it
Your full driving record from Transport for NSW
The penalty notices or court results behind the decision
Anything in writing about what your driving is for
Any earlier suspension or disqualification, and how it ended