If you have lost your licence for drink driving, demerit points, logbook and work time violations or other offences under the Land Transport Act 1998, you may be eligible for a limited licence. A limited licence usually allows you to drive to and from work, and, if necessary, allows you to drive for work.

The Courts have the power to grant a limited licence if it is shown that the disqualification of the driver causes extreme hardship to the applicant or undue hardship to someone other than the applicant. Extreme hardship often involves someone losing their job or business. Undue hardship can be any number of things. Mere inconvenience is not enough for either extreme or undue hardship. If you tell us about your circumstances, we can advise you whether you will be eligible for a limited licence.

Applying for a limited licence involves you completing a questionnaire and, if you lost your licence due to the accumulation of demerit point, providing us with the original notice of suspension. On receipt of your questionnaire, we then prepare an application, a draft order and an affidavit which you will need to swear. You can come into our offices to swear this, or we can send it to you and you can get a local lawyer or Justice of the Peace to witness your signature.

We then file the required documents at the District Court and a hearing date is allocated. This is usually within a week of filing the documentation, although it can vary depending on how busy the Court is. If the application is unopposed by the police, the Court usually grants the limited licence on the hearing day. If the police oppose the application, a further hearing is allocated when submissions are presented to the Court in support of the application. Applications for limited licences are mainly heard at 10am. This means that you can usually receive your limited licence the same day.

For further information, download our more detailed guide, or alternatively contact Shafraz Khan to see whether you are eligible for a limited licence.