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Land Transport Act 1998

Disqualification, demerit points, licence suspension, and vehicle impoundment - Disqualification

81: Mandatory disqualification: court’s discretion if special reasons relating to offence

You could also call this:

“Courts can sometimes decide not to stop you from driving if there are special reasons”

If you break certain rules under this law, a court usually has to stop you from driving or operating a transport service for a set amount of time. This is called disqualification. However, if there are special reasons related to what you did wrong, the court might decide not to disqualify you.

The court can also give you other punishments or stop you from driving for longer if they think it’s necessary. They don’t have to stick to just the minimum time mentioned in the law.

Sometimes, instead of stopping you from driving, the court might give you a different kind of punishment that you do in your community. This is explained in another part of the law called section 94.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM434887.

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Part 7 Disqualification, demerit points, licence suspension, and vehicle impoundment
Disqualification

81Mandatory disqualification: court’s discretion if special reasons relating to offence

  1. If any provision of this Act (other than section 63) requires a court to disqualify a person from holding or obtaining a driver licence or transport service licence for a period not less than the specified minimum period, the court must order that the person be disqualified accordingly unless for special reasons relating to the offence it thinks fit to order otherwise.

  2. Nothing in any provision referred to in subsection (1) or in section 65 restricts any other duty or power of the court to disqualify a person from holding or obtaining a driver licence or transport service licence or to impose any other penalty.

  3. This section is subject to section 94 (which allows a court to substitute disqualification with a community-based sentence).

Notes
  • Section 81 heading: replaced, on , by section 28(1) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 34).
  • Section 81(1): amended, on , by section 42(1) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 77).
  • Section 81(2): amended, on , by section 42(2)(a) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 77).
  • Section 81(2): amended, on , by section 42(2)(b) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 77).
  • Section 81(3): amended, on , by section 28(2) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 34).