You may be able to have your case adjourned to a different date or even transferred to a different Court. However you must contact the Criminal co-ordinator before the date of hearing to make the request and relevant arrangements.

Pending case information may be obtained by contacting the criminal co-ordinator’s office or the criminal registry at the Court at which your matter is listed.

If you incur a fine (or in some cases, a prison sentence) and you did not attend Court, you may be entitled to a re-hearing of your case. In situations where the summons was served by post and the Court is satisfied that it did not come to your attention before the case was heard, there is an automatic right to a re-hearing. If the summons was not served by post you may still be eligible to apply for a re-hearing if you failed to attend the court due to reasonable circumstances such as the summons being left with someone else or an emergency situation.

The Magistrate is not obliged to grant your application and therefore it is up to you to convince a Magistrate that there is a good reason why you should have your case re-heard.

You should attend court to lodge your application for a re-hearing. The Court Registrar will prepare documentation for you and ensure your application is listed approximately 3 weeks in advance. A rehearing application must be served on the informant (for example a police or council officer) at least 14 days before the hearing date. There is no fee for a re-hearing application in the criminal jurisdiction.

If your licence was affected by the court case in your absence and you need to drive in the meantime, then you may apply to the Court to drive until your case is heard, otherwise you may be charged with a serious offence of driving whilst disqualified/suspended. You can discuss arrangements for applying to continue to drive with the Court Registrar.

If you are pleading not guilty, you must let the Court know by ringing the Court at least three days before your Court date. You must advise the Court Coordinator’s Office of your intention of pleading not guilty. The case will then not be heard on the date written on your Charge & Summons or Bail bond, however if you are on bail you must come to Court to apply to have your bail extended. A new date will then be set for you to attend Court.

In most situations your case will then be set down for a contest mention. At the contest mention parties are given the opportunity to discuss the matter and try to come to a resolution. If a resolution is reached, the matter is dealt with at the contest mention stage. Otherwise the matter will be listed for a contested hearing.

In some cases, if you plead not guilty to minor offences, the matter may then be adjourned directly to a contested hearing. On that day, you then need to bring your witnesses to Court.