After a drink driving charge, your licence is usually the first thing at stake, and some of the most important decisions have to be made before your first court date. Talk to Joseph Rahim about where you stand.
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Drink driving is a criminal offence under the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld), dealt with in the Magistrates Court. If you were charged in or around Cairns, that is usually the Cairns Magistrates Court on Sheridan Street. The charge you face depends on your breath or blood alcohol reading and the type of licence you held at the time.
Learner, provisional, probationary and restricted licence holders, and certain other drivers.
Open licence holders. A reading from 0.05 up to 0.10 is often called low range.
A reading from 0.10 up to 0.15, often called mid range.
A reading of 0.15 or more, often called high range.
If you are convicted, losing your licence is automatic. The magistrate decides how long the disqualification runs, within minimum and maximum periods set by law, and the higher the reading, the more serious the penalties. Driving under the influence, and failing to provide a breath or blood specimen for analysis, are separate and more serious charges. A guide to your court date at Cairns Magistrates Court.
From 1 December 2026. Where a court deals with a drink driving matter by way of a fine, the fine has to be at least a set minimum, and driving with both alcohol and a drug in your system is an offence of its own. Despite some media reports, maximum penalties for drink driving are not doubled by these changes. What changes from 1 December 2026.
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Most of what decides how this ends is settled before you walk into court, and things usually happen in this order.
For a reading under 0.10, your licence is suspended for at least 24 hours from the time the reading is confirmed.
Your licence is suspended straight away, until the charge is dealt with, if your reading was 0.10 or more, if you failed to provide a specimen for analysis, or if you already had a drink driving charge pending. In limited cases you can apply to the court to keep driving until then.
Your paperwork shows your first court date. Whether a work licence is open to you, and what the magistrate will be told about your circumstances, has to be prepared ahead of that date.
Your disqualification starts. Everyone convicted of drink driving must complete a drink driving course, and some offences also bring the alcohol interlock program once the disqualification ends.
A work licence lets you keep driving for work during your disqualification. The magistrate decides it when you are convicted, before the disqualification is ordered, so the application has to be ready before your court date.
If your reading was 0.10 or more, a work licence also comes with an alcohol interlock. Work licence applications.
Two more things can follow a disqualification.
Everyone convicted of drink driving has to complete a drink driving course. Which one depends on your history.
If you are convicted with a reading of 0.10 or more, of driving under the influence, of failing to provide a specimen for analysis, or of two or more drink driving offences within five years, you will be an interlock driver once your disqualification ends.
Refusing the roadside screening test is one offence. Failing to provide a specimen for analysis, after a police officer has required it, is a separate and more serious one. It is treated the same as driving under the influence, with no work licence. Check which one is on your paperwork.
Queensland’s drink driving laws apply on a road or elsewhere, so being on private property usually makes no difference. Private property, boats and e-scooters.
Joseph Rahim, Principal. LLB (First Class Honours), Grad Dip LP. Member, Queensland Law Society. About Joseph
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If you are convicted, yes. Disqualification is automatic, and the magistrate sets how long within limits set by law.
Drink driving is a criminal offence, but whether a conviction is recorded is a decision for the magistrate. You are disqualified either way. More on criminal records.
Imprisonment is possible for drink driving offences. Nobody can tell you the outcome in advance, but you can control how well your matter is prepared.
If your licence was suspended until court, you can apply to the court to keep driving in limited cases. This does not happen automatically, so an application has to be made.
You are not required to have one, but whether a work licence is open to you has to be worked out before your first court date.
Yes. Everyone convicted of drink driving has to complete one. Which course depends on your history.
Yes. It is free, confidential and comes with no obligation.
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The sooner you get advice, the more can be done. Tell Joseph what has happened and find out exactly where you stand, with no cost and no pressure.
0447 028 080This page is general information about Queensland law. It is not legal advice. Every matter turns on its own facts, so speak with us about yours.
