Losing your licence in NSW
Licence suspension appeals
A suspension notice tells you the date you stop driving. It does not tell you whether you can do anything about it. That depends entirely on who suspended you, why, and what licence you hold, and for a good many drivers the honest answer is that there is no appeal at all.
Work out your filing date before you do anything else
The time limit is 28 days from the date you were notified, and it cannot be extended. For a Transport for NSW suspension the practical deadline is earlier still, because filing is what pauses the suspension, so the appeal needs to be in before the suspension starts. Send us the notice and we will tell you the date. Call 0407 171 626 (Alicia) or 0407 534 594 (Michelle).
Catron Simmons Lawyers are traffic lawyers acting for suspended drivers in Local Courts across New South Wales, from Sydney and the Hills District to the regions.
A licence appeal is a civil application in the Local Court asking a magistrate to review an administrative decision. It is not a plea, it does not decide whether you committed the offence, and it does not produce a criminal conviction. Section 268(4) of the Road Transport Act 2013 puts that beyond argument: the court cannot revisit your guilt or the penalty imposed on you for the offence that caused the suspension.
That distinction matters more than anything else on this page. If your complaint is that you did not commit the offence, an appeal is the wrong application. What you want is a court election, which takes the penalty notice out of the fines system and puts the offence before a magistrate, with all the risk that carries. The two are frequently confused, including by people who have already filed the wrong one.
On this page
Start here
Which suspension have you been given?
Look at the top of the notice. A notice handed to you at the roadside by a police officer and a notice that arrived in the post from Transport for NSW are different decisions made under different sections, and your rights are not the same.
| Suspension | Imposed by | Can you appeal? |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate suspension notice, s 224 | Police, at the roadside or within 48 hours | Yes, but only on exceptional circumstances |
| Speeding or drink and drug driving penalty notice, s 59 | Transport for NSW | Yes |
| Demerit points, learner and provisional holders, s 40 | Transport for NSW | Yes |
| Demerit points, unrestricted holders, s 33 | Transport for NSW | No |
| Breach of a good behaviour licence, s 36(4) | Transport for NSW | No |
| Unpaid fines, s 66 Fines Act 1996 | Revenue NSW | No, and it is dealt with elsewhere |
| Failure to sit a required test or course, s 43A | Transport for NSW | No |
| Disqualification on sentence | A court | Not by this route, see below |
Suspended is not the same as disqualified
People use the two words interchangeably and the law does not. A suspension is an administrative decision by Transport for NSW or a police officer, and it is challenged by a licence appeal under Part 7.8 of the Act. A disqualification is imposed by a court as part of a sentence, and it is challenged by a severity appeal to the District Court under the Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001, as of right within 28 days and by leave for up to three months. Filing the wrong one wastes the only time limit you have. See removing a licence disqualification if a court has already disqualified you.
There is no work licence in NSW
Despite what you may have been told, and despite what applies in Queensland and Western Australia, New South Wales has no work licence, restricted licence or hardship licence. If you are suspended you cannot drive at all, for any purpose. The appeal is the only mechanism, which is why the filing date matters so much.
Section 224
Immediate suspensions by police
An immediate licence suspension notice is issued by a police officer, either on the spot or at any time within 48 hours of you being charged or served with a penalty notice. It takes effect on receipt or on the date stated in the notice, and there is no grace period to get the car home. The grounds are set out in section 224 and are limited to:
- a charge arising from the death of, or grievous bodily harm to, another person caused by the use of a motor vehicle, including murder, manslaughter and offences under sections 33, 35(2), 52A or 54 of the Crimes Act 1900
- novice, special and low range prescribed concentration of alcohol offences, where it appears to the officer that the offence was committed
- a charge of mid range or high range PCA, driving under the influence, refusing or failing to submit to a breath analysis or to provide a blood, urine or oral fluid sample, or wilfully altering the concentration of alcohol or a drug in a sample
- exceeding the speed limit by more than 45 km/h, other than a camera detected offence
- exceeding the speed limit by more than 30 km/h as the holder of a learner, provisional or foreign licence
- driving unaccompanied on a learner licence
How long it runs
The notice does not always name an end date, and that alarms people unnecessarily. Where you have been charged, the suspension runs until the charge is heard and determined by a court or is withdrawn. Where you have been issued a penalty notice, it runs for a fixed period:
| Ground | Period |
|---|---|
| Novice, special or low range PCA | 3 months from the date of the alleged offence |
| Exceeding the limit by more than 45 km/h | 6 months from the date of the alleged offence |
| Learner or provisional holder exceeding the limit by more than 30 km/h | 3 months from the date of the alleged offence |
| Learner driving unaccompanied | 3 months from the date of the alleged offence |
A fixed period also ends early if you elect to have the matter dealt with by a court and the court determines it, or if a decision is made not to enforce the penalty notice.
The test is exceptional circumstances, and the offence itself is off limits
Section 268(5) is the difficulty with these appeals. The magistrate must not vary or set aside an immediate suspension unless satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances justifying it, and is not to take into account the circumstances of the offence you are charged with. You cannot ask the court to be lenient because your reading was only just over, or because it was late at night on an empty road. None of that is available to you.
What is available is everything about you and your need for the licence. Clause 148 of the Road Transport (General) Regulation 2021 directs the court to take into account the strength of the prosecution evidence, your need for a licence, the potential danger to the community if an order is made, and any other matter the court considers relevant.
Appeal before your court date, not after
Section 268(6) says an appeal against an immediate suspension must be made before the charge is heard and determined or withdrawn. Once you have been sentenced there is nothing left to appeal, and the disqualification takes over. Drivers who wait to see how the criminal matter goes lose this remedy without ever knowing they had it.
Sometimes the better advice is not to appeal
If you are going to plead guilty and a disqualification is coming anyway, time already served on an immediate suspension is not wasted. Section 206B requires the sentencing court to take that period into account, and it counts towards any minimum disqualification the Act requires. Section 59(4B) does the same for a later Transport for NSW suspension arising from the same offence. On a matter listed for hearing eight weeks away, an appeal can cost you more than it buys. That is a conversation worth having before you file, not after.
Sections 40 and 59
Suspensions by Transport for NSW
These arrive by post, to the address on your licence record, and they specify a date the suspension begins. That date is your working deadline.
Speeding, drink driving and drug driving penalty notices
Under section 59, Transport for NSW can suspend or cancel a licence because of an alleged speeding offence or an alleged alcohol or drug related driving offence once you pay the penalty notice, or once the time to elect to go to court has lapsed without you doing anything. You are not given a chance to show cause first. These decisions are appealable to the Local Court.
The common trap is paying the fine. Paying is what triggers the power, and people pay because the fine looks like the whole penalty. Read the back of the notice before you pay anything.
Demerit point suspensions for learner and provisional holders
A notice under section 40 is appealable. The notice must specify a start date at least 28 days after it is given, which is where your filing window comes from. On this kind of appeal the court is limited to the powers Transport for NSW itself had, and it cannot revisit the offences that produced the points.
Demerit point suspensions for unrestricted holders
These are made under section 33 and are not appealable decisions. There is no application to file and no magistrate to persuade. Your options are the good behaviour licence, or dealing with the individual penalty notice that pushes you over the threshold before it is recorded.
Suspensions for unpaid fines
A suspension by Revenue NSW under section 66 of the Fines Act 1996 is expressly excluded from the appeal provisions by section 266(3). The Local Court has no role. What does work is dealing with Revenue NSW directly: a payment plan, a Work and Development Order if you are experiencing hardship or have a health condition, a hardship review, or an application to lift the suspension while you pay. Most people get further with one phone call than they would have with an appeal.
Driver Knowledge Test and driver education courses
Section 43A allows Transport for NSW to require an unrestricted holder who reaches the demerit threshold twice within five years, or a P1 or P2 holder who reaches it twice at any interval, to sit the Driver Knowledge Test or a driver education course. Two things follow that catch people out. Your suspension is extended until you have sat and passed the test, so it does not simply expire on the date you have circled. And a suspension imposed for failing to do a required course is excluded from the definition of an appealable decision, so there is nothing to appeal. Read the notice, book the test early.
Points and thresholds
Demerit points and the good behaviour licence
Demerit points count over the three year period ending on the day you last committed an offence for which points were recorded. The points are not deleted by serving a suspension imposed by a court, and the offences stay on your traffic record whatever happens to the points.
| Licence | Threshold | Suspension |
|---|---|---|
| Learner | 4 points | 3 months |
| Provisional P1 | 4 points | 3 months |
| Provisional P2 | 7 points | 3 months |
| Unrestricted | 13 points | 3 to 5 months, see below |
| Unrestricted, professional driver | 14 points | 3 to 5 months, see below |
| Good behaviour licence | 2 points in 12 months | Double the original period |
| Points | Suspension | If a good behaviour licence is breached |
|---|---|---|
| 13 to 15 | 3 months | 6 months |
| 16 to 19 | 4 months | 8 months |
| 20 or more | 5 months | 10 months |
One offence can do it on a P1
A single speeding offence is commonly worth four points, which is the whole P1 and learner allowance. Provisional and learner drivers are the group with a right of appeal, and they are also the group most likely to be suspended by a single mistake. A speeding offence of 30 km/h or more over the limit also adds six months to the time you must hold your current licence before you can progress to the next stage.
The good behaviour licence, and why you should get advice first
An unrestricted holder who has been served with a suspension notice can elect, before the suspension starts, to be of good behaviour for 12 months instead. It is the only option most full licence holders have. It is also a gamble: incur two or more demerit points during those 12 months and Transport for NSW must suspend you for double the original period. One mobile phone offence does it.
The election cannot be withdrawn once it is made, and a suspension imposed for breaching a good behaviour licence carries no right of appeal. Think about how much driving you do and what your record looks like before you sign. For some drivers three months served now is plainly better than six months served at a worse time. See our page on the good behaviour licence.
Timing
The 28 days, and whether you can keep driving
A notice of appeal must be filed no later than 28 days after the date the decision maker notified you of the decision. The court has no power to extend it. Miss it and the suspension is simply served.
Notice by post is treated as received a set number of working days after posting, whether or not it reached you, so do not count from the day you opened the envelope. Count from the notice.
Whether the suspension is paused is the difference between the two kinds of appeal
- Transport for NSW suspensions. Filing the appeal stays the decision, so the suspension does not start and you can keep driving until the court decides. That is why the appeal has to be filed before the start date on the notice, not merely within 28 days. Check with Transport for NSW that the stay has been recorded before you drive.
- Police immediate suspensions. Filing does not stay anything. The suspension continues to run and you must not drive. The Local Court can order a stay, but only in exceptional circumstances, and that is an application in itself.
How long until it is heard
The hearing cannot be listed earlier than 28 days after the registrar gives notice of the appeal to Transport for NSW or the Commissioner of Police. In practice that puts most appeals four to eight weeks out. On a Transport for NSW matter the stay carries you through. On a police immediate suspension it means several weeks off the road before anyone hears from you, which is another reason to file the day you get the notice rather than the day before the deadline.
Where to file
The notice of appeal is filed at a Local Court registry or through the NSW Online Registry, and a filing fee applies. The notice must specify the grounds of the appeal. Registry staff can help you complete the form, but they cannot tell you whether the decision is appealable, which is the question that decides everything.
The hearing
What the court looks at
On an appeal against a Transport for NSW decision the Act sets no express test, and the court exercises the same discretion the decision maker had. In practice magistrates work through much the same ground every time:
- whether you are a fit and proper person to hold a licence
- your traffic record, and your criminal record if you have one
- the circumstances of the offence that led to the suspension
- your need for a licence, and the effect of losing it on your work, your family and anyone who depends on you
- what you have done since, including any driver education or a traffic offender course
On an appeal against a police immediate suspension the enquiry is narrower and harder. The circumstances of the offence are excluded, the threshold is exceptional circumstances, and the court must weigh the potential danger to the community against your need to drive.
Losing your job, on its own, is usually not enough
It is the first thing everyone says and the courts hear it every list day. Hardship becomes exceptional when it is specific and evidenced: a carer with medical appointments and no public transport, a sole parent with a school run that cannot be done any other way, a small business that stops trading without the driver. Assertion from the bar table achieves nothing. Documents do.
Outcomes
What the court can do
Under section 268 the Local Court may set the decision aside, vary it, dismiss the appeal, or make any other order that seems just in the circumstances. In varying a decision the court can only exercise the powers the decision maker had, so it cannot invent an outcome that was never open to Transport for NSW in the first place.
- Set aside. The suspension is lifted and you drive.
- Vary. The period is reduced. A shortened suspension is a common and realistic result where a complete lifting is not.
- Dismiss. The suspension stands and runs its full course. On a Transport for NSW matter it will usually start from the date of the dismissal, so time spent driving under the stay is not credited.
A dismissal is not neutral, and that is worth understanding before you file. If you have been driving for six weeks under a stay and the appeal fails, the three months you were originally facing still lies ahead of you. There is no penalty for appealing, but there is a cost to delay.
Preparation
Preparing the appeal
These matters are decided on the day, on the material in front of the magistrate. There is rarely a second chance and no adjournment for evidence you could have brought. What we put together generally includes:
- your full traffic record, obtained before we file rather than discovered at court
- a statement from you setting out what the licence is used for, hour by hour if that is what it takes
- a letter from your employer, or your accountant if you are self employed, dealing with what happens without you
- medical material where health, disability or caring responsibilities are part of the picture
- evidence of the public transport position, which is usually decisive in outer Sydney and the regions
- character references from people who know about the offence, not references written in ignorance of it
- a course certificate where completing one shows something rather than merely asserting it
Send us the suspension notice, any penalty notice or court attendance notice, and your licence details. We will tell you whether the decision is appealable, when the appeal has to be filed, whether filing pauses the suspension, and whether appealing is the right course at all.
Why Catron Simmons
Why drivers choose us
We check the right of appeal first
A great many callers have been told by someone confident that they can appeal, when the section they were suspended under says otherwise. Establishing that in the first conversation saves a filing fee and, more importantly, the time limit.
We know how the notices are generated
With a background in prosecution and in highway patrol, we know how suspension notices are produced, served and recorded, and where the service record is worth testing.
Wherever your matter is listed
Licence appeals are heard in the Local Court, often nowhere near home. We appear across New South Wales, so you are not left finding a second lawyer in another town.
You deal with a principal
We are a boutique firm. You talk to the solicitor who will appear for you, not a call centre, and we are contactable outside business hours.
Common questions
Licence suspension appeals: your questions answered
Can I appeal a demerit point suspension?
Only if you hold a learner or provisional licence. A demerit suspension for an unrestricted holder is made under section 33 and is not an appealable decision, so there is no application to file. Your alternative is the good behaviour licence, or dealing with the penalty notice that takes you over the threshold before the points are recorded. Immediate police suspensions and Transport for NSW speeding and drink driving suspensions can be appealed by anyone.
Can I drive while my appeal is on foot?
It depends who suspended you. Filing an appeal against a Transport for NSW suspension stays the decision, so the suspension does not begin and you can keep driving until the court decides, provided you filed before the start date. Filing against a police immediate suspension does not stay it, and you must not drive unless the court orders otherwise. Confirm the position with Transport for NSW before you get behind the wheel.
What are exceptional circumstances?
The term is not defined. On an appeal against an immediate suspension the court must take into account the strength of the prosecution evidence, your need for a licence, the potential danger to the community, and any other matter it considers relevant. The circumstances of the offence itself are excluded. The threshold is high but not unreachable, and it is met with specific, documented hardship rather than a general account of inconvenience.
I missed the 28 days. Is there anything I can do?
Not by way of appeal. The period runs from the date you were notified and cannot be extended. It is worth having the notice checked, because the date of notification is a question of fact and posting to a superseded address is more common than people assume, but do not plan around that. If the suspension has to be served, we can at least make sure you understand when it ends and what you must do to get the licence back.
Is an appeal the same as taking the fine to court?
No, and it is the most costly confusion in this area. An appeal is a civil review of the decision to suspend, and the court cannot look at whether you committed the offence. A court election puts the offence itself before a magistrate, requires a plea, and can result in a conviction and a higher penalty than the penalty notice carried. Sometimes an election is the better path. It should be a deliberate choice.
My licence was suspended for unpaid fines. Can I appeal that?
Not to the Local Court. Suspensions under section 66 of the Fines Act 1996 are excluded from the appeal provisions. The answer lies with Revenue NSW: a payment plan, a Work and Development Order, a hardship review, or an application to lift the suspension while you pay it off. Deal with it promptly, because driving on a fine default suspension is a criminal offence.
What happens if my appeal is dismissed?
The suspension stands. On a Transport for NSW matter it generally starts from the date of the dismissal, so the weeks you drove under the stay do not come off it. There is no additional penalty for having appealed, but the suspension is simply deferred rather than shortened, which is why the prospects are worth assessing honestly before you file.
Does time already served on an immediate suspension count towards a disqualification?
Yes. Section 206B requires the sentencing court to take into account the period you spent suspended under an immediate suspension notice for the same offence, and that period counts towards any minimum disqualification the Act requires. Transport for NSW must do the same under section 59(4B) when setting a suspension period. On a matter you intend to plead guilty to, that can make an appeal poor value, and it is a calculation worth doing before you file.
Keep reading
Related traffic law pages
Driver licence offences →
Driving while disqualified →
Removing a disqualification →
Good behaviour licences →
Demerit points, suspension and refusal →
P1, P2 and learner suspensions →
Drink driving and PCA charges →
Speeding and camera offences →
Infringement notices and fines →
Get started
Suspended? Send us the notice today.
Email us the suspension notice and any penalty notice or court attendance notice that came with it. We will tell you whether you have a right of appeal, the date it has to be filed by, whether you can keep driving in the meantime, and whether appealing is worth doing.