Penalty notices: still not such a fine thing for vulnerable people

On 13 January 2011 HPLS met with the NSW Law Reform Commission to discuss its submission to the Commission’s inquiry into the penalty notice system.  These discussions were followed by HPLS’s supplementary submission, which clarified and provided further detail regarding certain aspects of the original submission.  The recommendations included:  

• establishing a central body to oversee the penalty notice system;
• amending penalty notices to include, for example, the contact details for obtaining independent legal advice and where to go to make a complaint about an enforcement officer, such as a RailCorp officer;
• mandatory issuance of cautions where the enforcements officer reasonably suspects a person is homeless or has a mental illness, intellectual disability or cognitive impairment;
• introducing a concession rate for people surviving on Centrelink benefits;
• proportionately reducing the amount owed for people on low incomes; and
• creating a ‘special circumstances list’ in the local courts where vulnerable defendants could have all of their outstanding criminal matters and, if they chose, all of their fines debts finalised in a single hearing;

SEE ALSO Submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission Inquiry into Penalty Notices