Public transport fines & infringement notices
Youthlaw assists lots of young people to deal with fines or "infringement notices" that they have received from ticketing inspectors or transit police, after travelling on public transport. If you do nothing about your fines, they will not go away. In fact, the fines slowly get bigger, and eventually, you can be arrested and even be forced to go to court. So you SHOULD NOT ignore them.
If you are confused about what to do with your fines, or if there is a reason you don't think you should have to pay your fine, or if you cannot afford to pay your fine, YOU SHOULD either:
- drop in to see us, or
- contact your local community legal centre, or
- contact your local financial counsellor.
These pages are designed to give you information to assist you to deal with fines yourself. If you need help completing the letters or if they just don't make sense, feel free to drop in to see us.
These are some sample letters that you may wish to use when challenging fines called "Infringement Notice" or "Courtesy Letter". You can vary these letters to suite your particular circumstances. If you need help compiling these letters you can come in and see us.
(You can open them, go to "Save As" and give it a new name, then make sure all the bold text is correct and print out your letter.)
- I don't have enough money right now so please give me more time [RTF file 35kb]
- My fine should be withdrawn as I have a mental health condition [RTF file 35kb]
- My fine should be withdrawn as I have a health care card [RTF file 35kb]
- My fine should be withdrawn as I tried to buy a ticket [RTF file 44kb]
- My fine should be withdrawn as I am homeless [RTF file 35kb]
- My fine should be withdrawn as it was wrongly issued [RTF file 36kb]
If your fine has come from the "Infringements Court", try the information and sample letters below:
