A person who, under a regulation, may serve the Infringement Notice: SPE Act Schedule 2

The entity prescribed by regulation to be the Administering Authority for the notice or offence, such as the Queensland Police or Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Any offence prescribed by legislation to which the SPE Act applies. Common offences including fare evasion, speeding or other driving offences, public space offences, and failing to respond to a toll demand notice.

The amount prescribed under a regulation to be the fine payable for the offence under an Infringement Notice.

If the person can afford to pay the fine in full, they can do this directly to the Administering Authority. The Infringement Notice must detail how the fine can be paid: SPE Act s 15(2)(e).

If a person is unable to pay the fine in full, they can enter a voluntary instalment plan with the Administering Authority, if:

• the fine is at least $200; and
• the application is made within 28 days of being issued an Infringement Notice: SPE Regulation s 28.

The Infringement Notice should provide information about applying for a voluntary instalment plan. Generally, an application can be made by:

• contacting the Authorised Authority that issued the fine; or
• completing and signing the ‘voluntary instalment plan’ section in the Infringement Notice and posting it to the agency. An initial payment of $60 must be included. This initial payment will be applied to the Infringement Notice fine.

If the fine is less than $200, your client will not be able to set up a payment plan. However, under s28A SPE Regulation, they can apply to SPER to waive the administration fee after the fine is transferred to SPER. We discuss this on the Resolving a SPER debt resource.

After the voluntary instalment plan is accepted, the Administering Authority will register the remaining debt with SPER, who will then manage the payments. SPER will provide a voluntary instalment payment notice and plan to follow. If the person enters into a voluntary instalment plan with the Administering Authority, there is no SPER registration fee when the plan is transferred to SPER.

If the person misses a payment, SPER may send an enforcement order, which will include the additional fee. If the person consistently fails to follow the payment schedule, their voluntary instalment plan will be cancelled, and they will be required to pay the debt in full.

A person can negotiate or dispute an infringement notice directly with the administering authority that issued the fine.

Most infringement notices will contain contact information for the administering authority. For example, an infringement notice concerning a camera-detected traffic offence will notify the recipient that the matter can be disputed via email to the Queensland Revenue Office.

The authorised person or administering authority can withdraw and cancel an infringement notice before or after a fine has been paid: SPE Act s 15 (2)(g). While there is limited public guidance outlining when a specific administering authority will withdraw and cancel an infringement notice, some administering authorities will withdraw a notice where it can be shown that the individual was not directly responsible for the act, had a reasonable excuse, where the infringement notice offence was directly connected to an experience of hardship, and/or it is not in the public interest to enforce the infringement notice.

When negotiating or disputing an infringement notice, you should include any information or evidence that support your client’s claim.

If the Infringement Notice has been referred to SPER for collection, the Administering Authority can withdraw the infringement notice at any time before the fine is fully paid: SPE Act s 28(1).

If the Administering Authority withdraws the Infringement Notice, they should:

• send a notice informing your client that the Infringement Notice has been withdrawn;
• repay money that your client has already paid for the fine, if any; and
• give SPER a copy of the withdrawal notice, if the offence has been registered with them: SPE Act s 28(2). SPER will then cancel any enforcement order issued in relation to the withdrawn infringement notice: SPE Act s 29.

Before requesting that an Administering Authority withdraws an Infringement Notice, you should confirm that they also plan to cease pursuing your client by cancelling the original Infringement Notice.

Proceedings may be brought by either the alleged offender or the Administering Authority. The ability to commence proceedings arises if, within 28 days after the day the infringement notice was issued, your client does one of the following:

• does not respond to the notice; or
• elects to have the offence decided by a Magistrates Court: SPE Act ss 27(1)(a), (b).

Proceedings cannot be commenced if any amount of the fine has been paid or if the alleged offender has applied for a payment plan (even if a payment has not been made), as the alleged offender will be deemed to have accepted liability for the offence by paying or attempting to pay the fine: SPE Act s 26(2).

The Queensland Law Handbook has some additional information about challenging traffic related Infringement Notices in court.

An alleged offender should only pursue this option as a last resort or if they have a strong case.

If the matter goes to court and the alleged offender is unsuccessful, they will need to pay additional costs (such as an offender’s levy): Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) s 179C; Penalties and Sentences Regulation 2015 (Qld) s 10. If you form the view that the infringement notice was incorrectly issued or your client has a strong case to defend the infringement notice, you may want to contact the Administering Authority in the first instance to attempt to negotiate a resolution.

In most instances, a person that elects to have a matter heard in court will need to self-represent or engage private lawyers. There are limited free legal services to challenge Infringement Notices in court.

A person must respond to the Infringement Notice within 28 days. If a person does not respond to the infringement notice within 28 days, the Authorised Authority will refer the infringement fine to SPER for collection. A registration fee will be added.

If a person has not responded within 28 days but the infringement fine has not been registered with SPER, you should contact the Administering Authority to discuss the available options. The Administering Authority can withdraw an infringement notice before or after the notice has been paid.