That experience,however,clarified for me just how grossly imbalanced the system is. I had every resource one could ask for – legal training,advice,time,money – but the process was still dangerous,opaque and unnecessary.
Police patrol around the Sydney Opera House as mask-wearing outside became mandatory across NSW during a COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney on August 23,2021.Dominic Lorrimer
My experience resembled that of who were illegally ticketed. I was reading alone in the park less than a kilometre from home. I looked up to see two police officers hovering over me,accusing me of breaking the law for not actively exercising.
Although that day,I believed these officers. I figured maybe the order had changed – after all,it had been doing so every few days. This also seemed to be their job that day,so I thought they must have an idea of what they were doing. They were also intimidating,threatening to arrest me when I asked if I could start exercising now that I knew what the law was. We teach law students that legal knowledge is power,but I found it didn’t help me much that day.
I used the Revenue NSW portal to challenge my ticket. The fine was clearly mistaken,so I thought that would be the end of it (it wasn’t).
Revenue’s response stated that I was in the park with no “reasonable excuse”,which contradicted the public health order in force defining reasonable excuse as “exercise or recreation”. It doesn’t take a legal background to see that “or outdoor recreation” has no meaning if it doesn’t mean something other than exercise.
So,I challenged the ticket in court. At my appearance,I requested the bodycam footage and the particulars of the offence. The court notice referred to sections 7-10 of the public health order without saying which one I allegedly breached. This vagueness is what the. The official rescheduled my appearance for two months later and ordered that the prosecutor serve me the footage and particulars.
Cut to two months later. I still hadn’t heard a peep from the state,and my next appearance was only a few days away. So,I called the court to see if they had received anything. They hadn’t. I then called the general police line because I was never given the prosecutor’s contact information. After being bounced around,I was eventually connected with the officer who had issued me the ticket and,in my view,harassed me.
I explained what I was seeking and,to my surprise,he said,“Mate,I gave out a lot of tickets then.” I would eventually email him the public health order in effect the day I was fined and an hour later he replied to say he had recommended the ticket be withdrawn. At my appearance a few days later,the prosecutor withdrew the ticket.
It’s hard not to conclude that the system failed at every level. The police were not informed about the law they were enforcing. The state’s efficiency mechanism,the pre-trial review by Revenue NSW,showed it also misunderstood the law and had no interest in removing any burden from the courts. There was never any clarity about the offence,further raising the difficulty in defending oneself.
Then there’s the courthouse itself. It was crowded and largely unmasked – a much more dangerous place than the park. This is all made further unfair because self-represented people get to talk to the judge after those with lawyers have their go. As a result,people without means are exposed to more virus than others.
All this supports what we already knew:the system is shockingly imbalanced against accused people without means. The state seems to be withdrawing these fines only when you take it to court and demonstrate that you do have means. The fairest,safest and least costly way forward is to issue a blanket forgiveness on all COVID tickets.
