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If you have just been caught drink driving in Queensland for the first time, the two questions in your head are probably when you can drive again and whether this follows you around. Both have answers, and neither of them is settled at the roadside.
What happens next runs in a fairly predictable sequence, and knowing that sequence is most of what makes this manageable.
What happens if you get caught drink driving in QLD
Your licence is affected immediately, before any court is involved. Which form that takes depends on your reading. You are given a date to come to court. At that hearing the magistrate deals with the charge, decides whether to record a conviction, and disqualifies you for a period inside the range the law allows for your offence. The sections below go through that in more detail.
Your licence, on the night
This part happens without waiting for court. If your reading is below 0.10, your licence is suspended for at least 24 hours from the time the reading is confirmed. That is a cooling off period, and it sits entirely separate from anything a court does later.
If your reading is 0.10 or over, your licence is suspended immediately and that suspension runs until your charge is finished at court. The same applies if you failed to provide a specimen for analysis after police required it, if the charge is dangerous operation of a vehicle while under the influence, or if you are on a low range charge and you already have an earlier drink driving charge still pending.
The second kind catches people badly, because its length is not a set period. It runs for as long as your matter takes, so every adjournment means more time off the road. That alone is a reason to get your matter moving rather than letting it drift. Our piece on licence suspension and disqualification goes through the different kinds and how each one ends.
Which limit applied to you
Queensland has several drink driving limits rather than one, and which one applied depends on your licence and what you were driving.
The no alcohol limit applies to learner, provisional and restricted licence holders, and to specified drivers such as truck, bus and taxi drivers. For them, anything above zero is an offence.
For open licence holders the general limit is 0.05. Above 0.10 is the middle range. Above 0.15 is the high range, and at that level you are treated as being under the influence.
Those bands do more than set the offence name. They decide what happens to your licence before court, whether a work licence is even available, and whether an interlock follows. We set that out band by band in our piece on the drink driving penalty ranges.
What happens at court
Where you are pleading guilty, the reading is not in dispute and the hearing is not about whether it happened. Three things are decided at that hearing.
The first is the penalty. This may be a fine, or something else the court can impose. From 1 December 2026, where a court deals with a matter by way of a fine, that fine has to be at least a set minimum for the offence.
The second is whether a conviction is recorded. This is a separate decision from the penalty and it is the one people know least about. The court weighs the nature of the offence, your character and age, and what recording a conviction would do to your ability to earn a living. It can only weigh what it is told. Our piece on whether drink driving gives you a criminal record covers what goes on which record.
The third is your disqualification, and this one is not up for debate. If you are convicted, you are disqualified, and the magistrate sets how long inside the range the law allows for your offence category. Even where the court decides not to record a conviction, the disqualification still applies, which surprises almost everyone.
If you drive for a living
Raise this early rather than leaving it to the day of court. A work licence is applied for at the moment you are convicted and before the disqualification order is made. That window does not reopen. The application needs sworn evidence from you and usually from your employer, and the slow part is almost always getting the employer's affidavit organised.
Eligibility is strict and it rules people out for things they do not expect, including a suspension years ago for something unrelated, being on a zero limit licence at the time, or having been driving for work when it happened. Our page on work licence and hardship applications sets out the full list.
The interlock, which arrives after the disqualification
If your reading was 0.10 or above, or you are convicted of being under the influence or of failing to provide a specimen for analysis, an alcohol interlock requirement sits on top of your disqualification.
It is a breath tester wired into your ignition, and the clock on it does not start when your disqualification ends. It starts once you have a licence with the condition on it and a device fitted. People lose months by treating that as paperwork to get to later.
Penalties from 1 December 2026
Two changes matter for a first offence. From 1 December 2026, where a court deals with your matter by way of a fine, the fine has to be at least a set minimum.
Driving with alcohol over the limit and a drug present at the same time is also a combined offence from that date, and no work licence is available for that one at all.
The maximum penalties for drink driving itself are not doubled by those changes, whatever you may have read. The doubling applies to drug driving. The full picture is in our piece on the new drink driving laws.
Common questions
Will I lose my licence for a first drink driving offence?
Yes, if you are convicted. Disqualification follows the conviction rather than being a separate decision the magistrate might make. What is open is how long, within the range the law sets for your offence, and whether a work licence is available to you.
Is a first offence drink driving a criminal offence in Queensland?
Yes, it is a criminal offence and it is dealt with in a criminal court. Whether it leaves you with a criminal record is a separate question that turns on whether the magistrate records a conviction.
Can I just pay a fine and not go to court?
No. A drink driving charge is dealt with in court. You are given a date and you need to attend or be represented.
How long will I be off the road before court?
If your reading was under 0.10, the roadside suspension is short and then you are generally back driving until your court date. If it was 0.10 or over, you are off the road until the matter is finished, however long that takes.
If your first court date is in Cairns
The things that are decided on the day are mostly decided on material that has to exist before the day. That material includes your traffic history, what the court is told about your work and your circumstances, and if a work licence is in play, sworn evidence that takes time to organise.
We act in drink driving and traffic matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. If this is your first time in this position, we can walk you through what is coming.
If you have been charged with drink driving for the first time in Cairns, speak with us before your court date rather than after it.
This article is general information about Queensland law. It is not legal advice. Every matter turns on its own facts, so speak with us about yours.
When you call Coral Coast Law, you speak directly with principal Joseph Rahim, and he handles your matter himself. Your first consultation is free and confidential.
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