Responding to a charge

While the events are still fresh in your mind, it is a good idea to make some notes in your ​own words about what happened. You should also write down any conversations you had with the police and any witnesses.  It is also a good idea to ask any witnesses to make their own notes. These notes will help you to prepare for court.

If you have been charged with an offence and given a Court Attendance Notice (CAN), you will have to go to the specified court on a particular date.  Before you go to court, you should check what you have been charged with and consider how you want to respond to those charges.

Depending on the offence, you may get a CAN from Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), your local council or the police.

The CAN will tell you:

• the date and time you have to go to court
  
• what court you have to go to
  
• the name of the police officer or authorised officer
  
• what you have been charged with.
  

Sample: Sample Court Attendance Notice - police.

If you were charged with a drink driving offence, you should also receive a Certificate of Blood Alcohol Concentration.

If you were charged with an offence involving violence, you may also be given an Application for an Apprehended Violence Order or a Provisional Apprehended Violence Order. You should also get a statement from the victim.

If the police charge you but you are not at a police station, the police officer can give you a 'field CAN'. This is a small yellow slip that has the same information. It lists the offence or offences you have been charged with.

If you have lost your court papers, you can get a copy:

• from the Local Court registry
  
• by calling Court Service Centre on 1300 679 272 and asking for a copy to be posted to you
  
• from your lawyer.
  

Aboriginal people can get a copy by:

• speaking to the Aboriginal Service Unit worker at the Local Court
  
• calling the Aboriginal Services Unit on 1300 679 272.
  

If you were charged with an offence, the police may or may not have arrested you. If you were arrested the police may have just let you go or they may have released you on bail. Being released on bail means that you have made a promise to the police that you will follow certain conditions if they let you go. This is called a 'Bail Acknowledgement'.

If you do not go to court on the date specified or if you breach any of your bail conditions, the police can arrest you and hold you in custody until they take you to court.

For more information, see Bail.

Before you go to court, you need to consider whether to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. For more information, see Deciding whether to plead guilty or not guilty below.

If you disagree with the facts in the police fact sheet, or you want to see if you can get the charges dropped or reduced, see Negotiating with the police below. ​

If you believe there is evidence that shows you did not commit an offence or you have been charged with a number of offences and you are happy to accept some but not all of them you can ask the police to withdraw (drop) the charges. If you want to plead guilty but disagree with some of the facts, you can ask the police to change the Police Facts Sheet. This is called 'making written representations to the police'.

You should make representations before you go to your first court date. There are certain ways you have to make your representations.

You can write to the police to get your charges withdrawn or changed when:

• you think you have a good defence 
  
• you think the police have little or no evidence to prove you committed the offence 
  
• you agree to plead guilty to a less serious charge if the police withdraw the more serious charge 
  
• you want to plead guilty but you disagree with the police facts sheet and you want to have it changed.
  

Before you speak or write to the police about withdrawing or changing your charges, you should get legal advice.

If you do not have time before your court date to send written representations, you may be able to speak to the police prosecutor at court.

You should address your letter to the:

• Officer in Charge
  
• Police Prosecutor
  
• Local Area Commander.
  

Officer in Charge

The name of the Officer in Charge (OIC) will be on the CAN. It will state the officer's name, rank and station.

Police Prosecutor

The Police Prosecutor responsible for the matter will depend on the court where the case is listed. You can contact the court or police and get the details of the prosecutors responsible for your case.

Local Area Commander

A Local Area Commander is the head of a particular Local Area Command (LAC). You can find out which LAC the police station that charged you belongs to by:

• ringing or visiting the police station where you were charged or which sent you the CAN and asking them
  
• going to Regions / Local Area Commands section of  the NSW Police Force website.
  

In the letter, you should include:

• your full name and address
  
• the offence you were charged with, using the same words for the charge that are on the CAN
  
• the reference number on the CAN. This is usually called an 'H number' because it starts with an H.
  

You also need to explain what you want the police to do:

• withdraw the charges, or
  
• change the Police Facts Sheet.
  

If you are writing to the police because you want the charges withdrawn, you should also include in your letter:

• a request for one or more of the charges against you to be withdrawn
  
• an explanation for why you think the charge(s) should be withdrawn
  
• any evidence you have for why the charges should be withdrawn.

If you are writing to the police because you want to get the police facts sheet changed, you should also include in your letter:

• the exact words or sentences you want changed or deleted
  
• the reason why you want them changed or deleted
  
• any evidence you have for why these sections should be changed or deleted.
  

When making written representations to the police, be careful not to admit that you committed an offence. Before you send the letter, you should get legal advice.

Sample: Sample representations to police - change police facts sheet.

Make sure you let the police know how they can contact you and make sure you keep a copy of your letter.

If the police do not agree to withdraw the charge, you need to consider whether you want to plead guilty or not guilty. You should get legal advice.

If the police do not agree to change the police facts sheet, and you have chosen to plead guilty, you have two options:

• plead guilty and allow the prosecutor to give the police facts sheet to the magistrate as it is, or
  
• plead guilty and tell the magistrate that you would like a 'hearing on the facts'.
  

A hearing on the facts is a hearing to work out what version of events will be given to the court. Both the prosecution and you can call witnesses and other evidence to try to prove a particular version of events. The magistrate will then decide which version to accept. Before asking for a hearing on the facts, you should get legal advice.

If the police don't respond by the time your case is in court, you can:

• ask the registrar or magistrate to adjourn your case until the police have made a decision.
  
• talk to the police prosecutor at court.
  

You should tell the registrar or magistrate that you sent written representations to the police and you have not received a response. Make sure you know on what date you sent it and have some proof if possible, for example an express post tracking number. You should also have a copy of the written representations with you.

You should be prepared to plead guilty or not guilty in case the registrar or magistrate does not agree to give you an adjournment.

You can check with the police prosecutor at court if they received your request and possibly give them another copy.

The police prosecutor will usually sit at the bar table at the front of the courtroom. Always be polite and courteous when speaking to them. If they are too busy to talk to you in court, ask them if they can speak to you during the morning tea break (which is usually at around 11:30am) or at another time during the day. If the magistrate calls your name before you have had a chance to speak to the police prosecutor you can ask the magistrate if they can 'stand my matter in the list' (which means to adjourn to a later time in the day) until you have had a chance to talk to the police prosecutor.

It is unlikely that the prosecutor will withdraw any charges on the spot at court but they may agree to change the police fact sheet. If they agree, they will usually use a black marker to cross out the words or sentences you both agree should be removed.

If the police prosecutor does not agree to the change, you should be prepared to plead guilty or not guilty to the charge. 

For more information about what happens at court, see Going to court.

Before you go to court you should decide whether you are entering a plea of guilty or not guilty. On the first court date you will have to tell the registrar or magistrate your plea. 

Before you decide to plead guilty or not guilty, you should get legal advice.

If you have a mental health issue, an intellectual disability, or you have been charged with a serious driving offence or an offence relating to drugs or alcohol, you should get legal advice as there are some specific options that may be available to you. 

A defence is an explanation or reason that suggests you should be found not guilty of a charge. A defence can be a denial that you did what the prosecutor says you did. You may also have a defence if you have a legal excuse or justification for your actions.

Working out whether you have a defence to a charge can be very difficult. You should get legal advice about the circumstances of your case as soon as possible. 

For some driving and minor criminal offences the police must charge you no later than six months after the offence was committed. If you have received a CAN more than six months after the offence was committed, you should get legal advice.

The police write the facts sheet based on what they and any witnesses say they saw and heard. If you do not agree with the police facts sheet, you should get legal advice about whether you should:

• ask the police to change the police facts sheet before entering a guilty plea
• plead not guilty
  
• ignore it.
  

Whether you plead guilty or not guilty, you will need to spend time preparing for court, and you will have to spend at least a day at court. If you want to plead guilty, and you are prepared for court, it is likely that you will only need to go to court once. If you plead not guilty you will need to go back to court on another day and sometimes more than one day.

If you plead guilty, you can ask the court to have your case moved to another court (although the court may not agree to this). 

For more information, see Going to court.

If you plead not guilty, you will have to travel to the court where your case was first listed. This may be a long way from where you live or work.

If you plead guilty, you could receive a penalty, such as a fine, a good behaviour bond, or for more serious crimes, a prison sentence or intensive corrections order.  You could also lose your licence and get a criminal record (there are some exceptions to this).

If you plead guilty early on, the court may give you a discount on the penalty. There is also the possibility the magistrate will dismiss the charges and impose no penalty. This is known as a 'section 10'.

Different discounts on penalty apply depending on the type of offence you have been charged with and at what stage you have pleaded guilty. You should get legal advice about your specific situation and about what the benefit would be in pleading guilty.   

For more information about penalties, see The decision.

You don't have to have a lawyer when you go to court. If you decide to represent yourself, you should still speak to a lawyer​ about whether to plead guilty or not guilty before you go to court.

If you want to plead guilty, a lawyer can give you legal advice about how to prepare for court.

If you want to plead not guilty, it is a good idea to have a lawyer represent you because hearings can be complicated.

If you are found guilty of an offence you may also be ordered to pay compensation to the victim, or restitution to the state. You should get legal advice to find out if this applies to you. 

If you have been charged with a serious crime it is a good idea to get a lawyer. You should get legal advice about what discounts may apply if you plead guilty at each different stage of the criminal process. 

If you plead guilty it means you agree that you committed the offence you were charged with and you do not have a defence.

When you plead guilty, the magistrate will usually sentence you on the same day. You may be sentenced on another day if you were charged with a serious offence, or if you agree or are ordered to participate in a course or program.  

During the sentencing, the police prosecutor will give the magistrate a copy of the Court Attendance Notice (CAN), the police facts sheet, your criminal record and driving record. The magistrate will read these and will then ask if you have anything you want to say or if you want to hand up any documents. This is when you can make submissions and hand up documents to support your case. The magistrate will then decide your sentence. This is the penalty you should get, if any.

For more information, see Pleading guilty. 

If you plead not guilty it means:

• you did not do it, or
  
• you did do it but you have a defence, or
  
• you don't want to admit anything and you want to make the prosecution prove their case.
  

When you plead not guilty, the magistrate will give you a hearing date. At the hearing, the prosecutor will present evidence to try and show the court that you are guilty. You can also present evidence that shows you are not guilty or that you have a defence. The magistrate will then make a decision.

If you plead not guilty plea and you change your mind, you can change your plea to guilty. You can do this at any time before your hearing date or on your hearing date, but you should do this as soon as possible.

For more information, see Pleading not guilty.

If you have already entered a plea, but you want to change it, in some cases you can. 

If you have entered a plea of not guilty, you can change your plea to guilty at any time before or during the hearing. Before changing your plea, you should get legal advice.

For more information, see Pleading not guilty.

You can only apply to change your plea from guilty to not guilty before you are sentenced. There must be exceptional circumstances for your plea to be changed from guilty to not guilty. Before changing your plea, you should get legal advice.

For more information, see Pleading guilty.