Bold Law

Can I apply for a restricted licence?

If you have been caught drink driving there are various criteria that make you unable to apply for a restricted licence. Those criteria are:

• your offence was committed while you were disqualified, or within 3 years after ending any disqualification
• your offence was driving with a blood alcohol content equal to or greater than 0.15%
• your offence was objecting to a blood/urine sample analysis
• your offence was refusing or failing to submit to a breath analysis/blood sample/medical examination
• you held a learner or provisional licence at the time of your offence (unless your offence was driving with an illicit prescribed drug in your blood)
• you drove a vehicle without the appropriate licence (for example, driving a truck without a relevant truck licence) at the time of the offence (unless your offence was driving with an illicit prescribed drug in your blood)
• you drove a prescribed vehicle at the time of the offence (for example a taxi, bus, luxury hire car, or a vehicle with a GVM exceeding 4.5 tonnes)

Further, if your licence was subject to restrictions at the time you wish to apply for a restricted licence you will not be able to apply. Those restrictions are:

• your licence is (or is liable to be) suspended because you’ve accumulated demerit points, and you have (or had) the option of entering into an undertaking for a period of good driving behaviour
• you do not hold a current Australian driver licence and can’t apply for one, because of the demerit points you’ve accumulated
• you are a novice driver who hasn’t held a provisional licence for a continuous period of 12 months or; you are a P1 licence holder who has been (or will be) regressed to an L2 licence
• you have been disqualified from driving in accordance with an excessive drink driving notice that hasn’t been cancelled or determined by a Court
• you’ve never held any Australian driver licence

I am eligible to apply - what information to I have to provide to the Court

You will need to complete an application form for a restricted licence. We recommend if you are going to obtain a lawyer that you have your lawyer complete the application form with you because there is a strong possibility that you maybe asked questions by the prosecution or the Magistrate in Court about the contents of your application.

As part of completing your application you will need to provide evidence of your previous traffic and criminal history in Tasmania and anywhere else in Australia that you have history.

To be successful in obtaining a licence, you must be able to demonstrate to the Court that you will suffer severe unusual hardship AND that the granting of a restricted licence is in the public interest. The fact that you may lose your employment may not be enough to show severe and unusual hardship.

It is possible to obtain restricted licences if the hardship that you will suffer is not the loss of your employment but rather the effect upon your family and dependants.

The skill in making these applications is in the material that is put before the Court. Bold Lawyers will work with you to make sure that the best material is put before the Court to establish your entitlement to a restricted drivers licence.

We highly recommend contacting us so that you can ascertain what your rights are. Best of all, it will cost you nothing to know where you stand.