The course in one page

Every lesson in two or three lines. Read this first if your court date or your notice deadline is close, then go to the lessons that matter for you.

Module 1The notice in your hand

1. 1What have you been charged with? A s 111 charge means a roadside test found a prescribed illicit drug in your system while you were driving, and that is the whole offence: the law does not ask whether you were affected, how much you had, or when you took it, only whether it was there.
2. 2Penalty notice or court? For a first offence police can hand you a penalty notice instead of a court date, and if you pay it the matter ends with a fine and a fixed licence suspension but no court and no conviction, whereas taking it to court gives you a chance at a Section 10 and no suspension at all, at the risk of a longer disqualification if the Judge is not persuaded.
3. 3Your licence If the court records a conviction for a first s 111 offence, the Act disqualifies you automatically, the Judge can shorten it to the minimum but not below it, and the only way to keep your licence entirely is a Section 10, which is why everything from here is aimed at that.
4. 4What the police did at the roadside, and what the certificate means The roadside test was a screening, the second test in the police vehicle or at the station was the one that counts, and the sample was sent to a laboratory whose certificate is what the prosecution will rely on in court; that certificate is presumed correct unless you can show a real reason it is not.

Module 2The offence and the outcomes

1. 5Will I lose my licence? If the court records a conviction for a first s 111 offence, the Act takes your licence for a set period automatically, the Judge can shorten that period to a minimum but not below it, and the only way to keep the licence entirely is a Section 10, which is why every lesson from here is aimed at one.
2. 6What the Judge can order For a first s 111 offence the court chooses from a short ladder: a Section 10 with no conviction and no disqualification at the bottom, then a conviction with a fine and the minimum disqualification, then the same with a longer disqualification, and at the top, for this offence, the maximum fine and the full automatic period; custody is not part of the picture for a first offence.
3. 7What the prosecution must prove, and the two defences The prosecution has to prove two things: that you were driving, and that a prescribed illicit drug was present in your sample, and because the laboratory certificate proves the second one unless something is wrong with it, almost every s 111 matter is won or lost at sentence rather than on the charge.
4. 8How the Judge decides, for a driving offence The Judge uses the same four questions as for any Section 10, but for a driving offence three things carry extra weight: whether you have done the Traffic Offenders Program, what the licence is actually for, and whether the disqualification would punish you far more than the offence deserves.
5. 9Should I plead guilty? For a s 111 charge the plea question is simpler than for most offences, because the certificate usually settles the charge, so unless one of the two defences from Lesson 7 is genuinely open, you plead guilty early, take the discount, and put everything into the Section 10 argument.

Module 3Preparing for court

1. 10The Traffic Offenders Program The Traffic Offenders Program is a short road-safety course run by community organisations across NSW, the court expects a drug driver to have completed it before sentence, and finishing it is the single most useful thing you can do for your Section 10 argument, so enrol this week.
2. 11Character references for a driving matter References for a driving charge work the same way as for any charge, with one extra thing the referee can say that matters: what they have seen of you as a driver, and what the licence is used for.
3. 12The letter to the court Your letter is one page, in your own words, with the same six parts as any apology letter, but for a drug-driving charge two of those parts do the heavy lifting: what you now understand about how long these drugs stay in your system, and what the licence is actually for.
4. 13Proving why you need the licence The Judge has heard "I need my licence for work" a thousand times and gives it no weight on its own, so the job of this lesson is to turn that sentence into evidence: documents from other people that show what the licence is for and what its loss would cost.
5. 14Your submissions Your submissions are three minutes, from dot points, under the four questions the Judge must consider, ending with a specific ask and a specific fallback, and for a s 111 matter the ask is a Section 10 and the fallback is the minimum disqualification.

Module 4The day

1. 15Where to go, who is who, what to bring A Local Court list day is airport security, a crowded foyer, a screen with your name on it, and a lot of waiting, and the only things that go wrong before your name is called are arriving late, going to the wrong room, and not telling the court officer you are there.
2. 16What to say at each stage The words for a guilty-plea driving matter are short and predictable, and there is one extra moment compared with other charges: the moment you ask for the Section 10 in terms, which you should do plainly and once.
3. 17If the Judge disqualifies you If the Judge records a conviction, the disqualification starts the moment the order is made, you hand your licence in before you leave the building, and from that moment driving home is a separate and far more serious offence, so plan today for how you will get home if it goes that way.
4. 18If you cannot attend If you cannot be at court on the day you must tell the court before the date with a reason and a document, because a driving matter dealt with in your absence can end in a conviction and a disqualification you do not know about until a letter arrives, and by then you may already have been driving unlawfully.

Module 5After court

1. 19Reading the order and getting the licence back Before you leave court get the written order, read every line against this list, and put the end date of any disqualification in your phone with a reminder a week before, because the licence does not always come back on its own.
2. 20Appeals, the record, and the future You have 28 days to appeal a conviction or a sentence to the District Court, a s 111 conviction sits on your driving record for the five-year period that decides whether a future matter is a second offence, and insurers and some employers ask about it, so this last lesson is about what the result means over the next few years.