Traffic lawyers on the Gold Coast

Why a Gold Coast disqualification hits harder

The G:link light rail runs one line, along the coastal strip from Helensvale to Burleigh Heads. That is it. If you live at Upper Coomera, Pimpama, Maudsland, Worongary, Mudgeeraba, Currumbin Valley or Ormeau, there is no realistic public transport substitute for a car, and the bus network will not get a tradesman to a site at 6:30am with tools.

This matters legally, not just practically. If you apply for a work licence under section 87 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld), the court has to be satisfied that refusing it would cause extreme hardship to you or your family by depriving you of your means of earning a living. On the Gold Coast that argument is genuinely available to a lot of people. In Brisbane a prosecutor will point at a train line. Here, often, there is not one.

The evidence still has to be put properly. A magistrate needs an affidavit that sets out where you live, where you work, what hours, what vehicle, what the alternatives actually are, and what happens to your household income if the licence goes. Assertions do not carry it.

Where Gold Coast traffic charges come from

The road network here concentrates offences in a handful of places.

• The M1 Pacific Motorway. The single biggest source of speeding and dangerous driving charges on the coast, particularly the stretch through Nerang, Robina and Varsity Lakes and the northern run past Coomera and Pimpama. High speed matters at more than 40km/h over the limit carry heavy penalties and a mandatory disqualification.
• The Gold Coast Highway and Surfers Paradise Boulevard. Late night random breath testing sites. A large share of the drink driving list at Southport starts here.
• The Smith Street Motorway, Southport-Nerang Road and Bermuda Street. Commuter corridors, which is where mobile phone and seatbelt camera detections turn up.
• The Gold Coast Highway at Tugun and the border. Charges laid on the Queensland side against New South Wales licence holders who live at Tweed Heads.

Queensland runs camera detection for mobile phone and seatbelt offences as well as speed. Those infringements attract demerit points and can push a driver over the threshold for a licence suspension without any court appearance at all, which is a different problem with a different remedy.

Drink and drug driving at Southport

Disqualification on conviction is mandatory. Nobody can promise you keep your licence. What is genuinely in play is the length of the disqualification, whether a conviction is recorded, the fine, and whether you are eligible for a work licence.

Drug driving is different again. A relevant drug present in saliva or blood is dealt with under the same Act but does not require proof of impairment, so the defence work is usually about the sample, the certificate and the sentence rather than about whether you were affected.

There is also an immediate suspension regime. For high range readings and repeat offences your licence can be suspended straight away, well before you get to court. That clock runs whether or not you have a lawyer. If you have been served with a suspension notice, read our pages on the work licence and the special hardship order, and note the time limits.

Cross border drivers and the Tweed

The Gold Coast has a border running through the bottom of it and a large population that lives in New South Wales and works in Queensland. If you hold a New South Wales licence and are charged in Queensland, the Queensland court deals with the charge and imposes any disqualification.

Do not assume a Queensland disqualification stays in Queensland. Driver licence information is shared between jurisdictions, and expecting to simply drive home on a New South Wales licence is how people end up with a disqualified driving charge, which is a far more serious matter than the original one. Get advice on your specific licence before you make that assumption.

What we do on a Gold Coast traffic file

1. Check eligibility first. Work licences and special hardship orders have strict statutory gateways, and there is no point building a case for one you cannot legally get. We tell you within the first appointment.
2. Get the material right. Affidavits from you and your employer, evidence of your route and hours, and evidence of what the household loses. Magistrates at Southport read a lot of these, and the weak ones are obvious.
3. Deal with the disqualification length. A traffic sentence is not just a fine. Character references, a driving history, a completed traffic offender programme and an early plea under section 13 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) all bear on the number.
4. Watch the time limits. Several licence applications have short deadlines measured in days, not months. Missing one is usually fatal to the application.

Our office is on Davenport Street, along from the Southport courthouse. If your matter is at Coolangatta or Beenleigh we appear there too.