What should I do if my Court Attendance Notice or fine hasn’t arrived?

Being hauled down to the police station to be charged and interviewed can be a highly stressful experience.

If police have decided not to charge you on the spot, they can still send you a Future Court Attendance Notice (CAN) in the mail.

That document will contain a description of the charges being pressed against you and an outline of the allegations, called the ‘full facts’.

Equally, if police charge you while in a location other than the police station they will normally give you a small, yellow CAN with handwritten details of the charge, court date and location..

That piece of paper will not contain the ‘full facts’ and will sometimes be difficult to read.

Police will later issue you with a full, typed CAN.

If police have told you that you will be receiving a CAN in the mail, waiting for it to arrive can be stressful.

They may take so long to send out that you may hope that the case goes away altogether!

On the other hand, if you are anxious because the CAN not turned up for weeks or months you may wish to consider whether or not the police have your correct address.

If you have moved recently and not updated your details, it may be possible that any paperwork has been sent to your old address.

But if you are positive that they have your correct address, you may wish to call the police station that was responsible for your case and enquire as to it’s progress.

Simply not turning up to court because you didn’t receive a CAN is not a good idea because the court might decide the matter without you there or even issue a warrant for your arrest.

If your case is decided without you, there are steps you can take to get a new court date scheduled, but this will not be granted automatically.

This can be done by virtue of a ‘section 4 annulment application’, which is an application for the case to be relisted and for any conviction to be quashed.

You (or your lawyer) will need to complete that application and file it at the court registry.

You will then be given a fresh court date when the application will be heard.

For the application to succeed, you will need to show the magistrate that there were good reasons for your non-appearance in court.

If you have lost your paper work, and police are unable or unwilling to help you out, you can call court you were supposed to attend and they should be able to give you the scheduled court date.

If you have elected to take a matter to court, and have not received your documents, you should contact the State Debt Recovery Office.

What about when it comes to penalty infringement services?

If you are waiting for a speeding ticket to arrive, your failure to respond is not going to get you into the same type of trouble.

If for some reason it got lost in the mail, you will normally receive a reminder penalty notice.

And if nothing arrives after six months, you may be able to count yourself lucky.

For minor offences (called ‘summary offences’), police only have six months to prosecute.

Summary offences are normally those that attract a maximum prison sentence of two years or less.

This includes most traffic infringements.

It is possible for police to make mistakes and even these days, with modern technology, things may still slip through the system which means that your CAN or fine may not have been processed and sent.

Of course, as mentioned above, you should make sure that your address is current and correct.

It is important to note that Court Attendance Notices are never sent out via email.

Overseas, there have been cases of fake Court Attendance Notices being sent – along with viruses to infect your computer and even in Australia, the New South Wales State Debt Recovery Office warns people of fake penalty notices being sent by email.

If you receive an email like this, don’t pay it or open any of its attachments.