Local Court Bench Book — Update 134 published

The following amendments have been made to the Local Court Bench Book: Contents, Practical notes section and cross-referencing to other publications. Following the expansion of the former Practical Notes section, the Bench Book has been restructured and renumbered so that its contents page is better organised and it is easier to locate the various chapters/topics covered.The Local Court Bench Book has been updated to include cross-references to various relevant sections of the Sentencing Bench Book, Criminal Trial Courts Bench Book, Civil Trials Bench Book, Equality before the Law Bench Book and Children’s Court Resource Handbook.
Specific penalties and orders — Road transport section at [2-000] The Road Transport Act 2013 was recently amended to clarify that, in relation to an application to remove licence disqualification, the “offence-free period” is calculated by reference to the date of the relevant offence, not the date of conviction (see s 221A(2)). A definition for “never-eligible offence” has been inserted into s 221A and persons convicted of a “never-eligible offence” are ineligible to apply for the removal of their licence disqualification under the scheme (see s 221D). A new s 221F has been inserted allowing the Local Court to conduct a rehearing to revoke a previously granted application where the applicant had been convicted of a “never-eligible offence” and was therefore ineligible to apply for the removal of their licence disqualification.
The Index, Table of Statutes and Table of Cases have been updated.