1. You Don’t Use An Affidavit

 

The application for a special hardship order is a civil application to the Court. In civil applications you need to present evidence in the form of an affidavit. Section 317(2)(a) of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Driver Licensing) Regulation 2021 states:

For subsection (1)(b)(i), the applicant must give the court an affidavit made by the applicant outlining how a refusal to make the special hardship order would cause extreme hardship to the applicant, or the applicant’s family, by depriving the applicant of the applicant’s means of earning a living

If you do not give the Court an affidavit to support your application for the Special Hardship Order, then it will fail.

 

2.You Don’t Complete A Traffic Offender Program

 

For your application for a Special Hardship Order to be successful, you must be able to prove you are a fit and proper person to continue driving. You are applying for a Special Hardship Order, so you either accumulated too many demerit points on a good driving behaviour period or you committed a speeding offence 40 kilometres over the speed limit. When deciding if you are a fit and proper person to continue driving, you cannot just say this in your affidavit. One thing you can do which is positively looked upon by the Court is completing a traffic offender program. Completing a traffic offender program is seen as being rehabilitative. Courts want people to stop doing what led them to going to Court.

 

If you don’t complete a traffic offender program, your application for a Special Hardship Order will probably fail.

 

3.You Don’t Prove You Or Your Family Will Suffer Extreme Hardship Because You Will Be Deprived Of Earning Your Living If You Are Not Granted The Special Hardship Order

 

You need to prove you or your family will suffer extreme hardship because you cannot work and earn a living without a driver licence. In your affidavit, you need to say what you earn each week after tax. You need to show all your living expenses broken down on a weekly basis. You want it to be clear to the Court if you lose your job and lose your income you cannot pay your living expenses. If you cannot afford to pay for your living expenses, this will cause you and/or your family to suffer extreme hardship. If you do not do this, your application will fail because the law says the Court must be satisfied you or your family will suffer extreme hardship.

 

4.You Don’t Get An Affidavit From Your Employer

 

If you are employed, you must get an affidavit from your employer. You cannot give the Court a letter from your employer. Section 317(2)(b) of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Driver Licensing) Regulation 2021 states:

 

For subsection (1)(b)(i), the applicant must give the court an affidavit made:

(b) if the applicant is not self-employed—an affidavit made by the applicant’s employer confirming the applicant would be deprived of the applicant’s means of earning a living if the application were refused.

 

5.Your Employer’s Affidavit Doesn’t Say You Will Lose Your Job

 

An applicant for a Special Hardship Order who is employed must give the Court a detailed affidavit from their employer. The affidavit from the employer must say if you lose your driver licence, then you will lose your job. It is not sufficient for the employer to say you may lose your job if you lost your driver licence.

 

In some situations, you may not need your driver licence to do your job, but you do need it to get to work. In these situations, your employer could say if you are unable to get to work then you would lose your job.

 

If it is not clear you will lose your job if you do not have a driver licence or cannot get to work, then your application will fail.

 

6.You Can Get To Work By Public Transport 

The application for a Special Hardship Order is not a convenience thing. Getting in your car and driving to work is more convenient than getting on a bus or train to get to work. If public transport is an option and you do not need your licence for work, your application will probably fail. Saying this, the Court may grant the application for a Special Hardship Order even if public transport is available. We have obtained Special Hardship Orders for persons where public transport has been available. Please read below where we discuss this issue in more depth.

 

7.You Don’t Show Public Transport Is Not Suitable or Available 

For some applicants it is clear public transport is not suitable for their work. For example, plumbers could not use public transport to do their job because they need to transport tools and parts to and from jobsites. However, for some applicants they do not need their driver licence to perform their job.

If you do not need your driver licence to do your job, you need to show the Court public transport is not suitable or available. One of the easiest ways to do this is to go on the Translink website and enter your home address and your work address. We often printout journeys from Translink and attach them to client affidavits to show public transport is not an option.

 

Situations where we have successfully got Special Hardship Orders for clients where public transport has been available are:

1. The client would have to walk long distances to and/or from the public transport.
2. The client would have to spend long times on public transport making it impossible for them to do their job.
3. The public transport doesn’t operate when they need to get to and/or from work.

There is no hard and fast rule with public transport, but you need to be able to tell the Court why public transport will not work for you.