Review of the Court Costs Levy

What's this about?

The Department of Justice is reviewing the amendments introduced by the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Court Costs Levy) Act 2013 (the amending Act), as required by clause 77 of Schedule 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986. The review is to determine whether the policy objectives of the amendments introduced by the amending Act remain valid and whether the terms remain appropriate for securing those objectives.

The purposes of the amending Act were to:

• Amend the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 by introducing section 211A to require accused persons who have been found guilty of offences in summary proceedings before the Local Court to pay a Court Costs Levy (replacing a system where the Local Court had the discretion to make an order that a convicted person pay court costs).
• Amend the Fines Act 1996 to provide that a Court Costs Levy is to be treated as a fine for the purposes of enforcement action under the Fines Act.
• Amend the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 by introducing section 42A to expressly provide that the court has a discretion to make an order that an accused person who has been found guilty of an offence pay court costs in criminal proceedings involving children.

The amendments were introduced to achieve greater consistency in the application of court costs.

Part 2A of the Criminal Procedure Regulation 2010 prescribes the Court Costs Levy at $85.

The review is limited in its scope to the above issues and it does not extend to a review of court costs, costs orders or court fees generally.

Submissions

The Department of Justice invited interested individuals and organisations to make submissions to the review.

Submissions are now closed.