S94 - Community work instead of another disqualification.
Charged with driving while disqualified, driving while suspended, or breaching your limited licence? A judge can order community work instead of taking your licence again. We prepare the whole application and Melanie argues it in court for you — $1,725, fixed, in three instalments. Ring before you plead guilty.
✔ Anywhere in NZ, by Zoom
✔ 30+ years experience
✔ No Law Society complaints
We do the whole thing. You get on with your week.
A section 94 application is won on paper, before anyone stands up in court. The judge reads a set of sworn affidavits and written submissions beforehand, and decides on those.
Writing them is our job, not yours. You give us your side of it and three or four documents; Melanie does the rest and stands up in court on both dates.
You won't be handed a file and left to it, and you won't be passed to a junior. If you're outside Auckland, appointments are by phone or Zoom and you won't need to travel.
Why this one needs someone who's done it before
The argument that wins a section 94 is a strange one. The judge has to be persuaded that disqualifying you again won't achieve anything — which, put badly, sounds like I ignored the last one and I'll ignore this one. Put properly, it's the exact ground Parliament wrote the section for. Getting that difference right, in writing, is most of what you're paying for.
What's included
A first appointment to check you're eligible and plan the application
Affidavits drafted for you — and for your employer, where one is needed
Written submissions filed with the court before the hearing
Melanie at both court appearances, arguing it in person
Christopher on the phone throughout, so you're never chasing us
One fixed fee, payable in three instalments
Phone and Zoom appointments nationwide. Mon–Fri 9am–9pm, Sat 2pm–6pm.
$1,725, and you know that before you start
That's the whole application — the affidavits, the submissions the judge reads, and both court appearances with a barrister on her feet for you. Three instalments, so you're not asked for it in one hit. There's a $287 success fee if the order is granted, and nothing extra if it isn't.
Representation for driving while disqualified generally runs between $2,500 and $5,000 in New Zealand, and almost nobody publishes a price at all. Ours is on this page because you shouldn't have to ring a lawyer to find out what a lawyer costs.
Debit card, credit card or online transfer. If money is the reason you haven't rung, ring and say so. An instalment plan isn't a favour here — it's how this fee is normally paid. All our fees, on one page →
Section 94 application (incl GST)
Affidavits, written submissions and both court appearances - $1,725
Payable in - 3 instalments
Success fee, only if the order is granted - $287
Phone, Zoom or office appointment - $230
Extra court appearance, Auckland DC - $230
Extra court appearance, other greater Auckland - $287
No court filing fee — a section 94 application is part of your sentencing, not a separate application to the court.
What happens when you ring us
Start to finish it's usually a few weeks, and most of it happens without you having to do much.
Here's the whole thing, in order, with who does what. The steps marked YOU are the only ones that need anything from you.
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This is the one step that can't be fixed later. The court needs to know at the plea that a section 94 application is coming, so sentencing is adjourned for it. If you've already pleaded but haven't been sentenced, ring today — there's still a window.
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First appointment, phone or Zoom, usually the same day. We go through your driving history and the charge, and you'll be told plainly whether this is open to you. If it isn't, you'll hear that on the call rather than after you've paid for an application.
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A letter from your employer, on letterhead, saying what happens to your job if you can't drive and by when. Your roster or payslips. Whatever shows what losing the licence would actually cost you — the mortgage, who depends on your income, what buses exist where you live. Christopher gives you the list and chases what's missing.
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Melanie writes the sworn affidavits from your instructions — yours, and usually your employer's — and the written submissions the judge reads before the hearing. You read them, and you swear yours. This is the part that wins it.
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The first is the guilty plea, where the application is signalled and the matter adjourned. The second is the hearing, where Melanie argues it. Both are in the fixed fee. The police often oppose these — several of the orders below were granted over their opposition.
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You do community work instead of losing your licence, and we explain exactly what you've been ordered to do and by when. The $287 success fee is payable at this point, and only at this point.
Melanie Coxon
Barrister
Thirty+years arguing these, against the same prosecutors.
Melanie Coxon is a barrister sole, admitted in 1993, and she has been running section 94 applications in the Auckland District Court for most of that time. The police oppose these routinely, and knowing who will oppose what — and what answers it — is most of the preparation.
She has had no Law Society complaint in her practising career.
You'll deal with Melanie directly. Her client liaison, Christopher, is usually the one who picks up the phone, chases your paperwork and tells you where things are up to. Twelve of our fifty-three Google reviews name him, which tells you how much of this he does.
When they say it's impossible, that means there are a thousand solutions.
Once you're sentenced, this option is gone.
A driving-while-disqualified guilty plea is often dealt with and sentenced on the same day at the first appearance. If that happens, you're disqualified before anyone has mentioned section 94.
Ring before you plead. It costs you one phone call, and it's the shortest window on this site.
Can you apply?
Three things decide it, and we'll tell you where you stand in one phone call.
✔ A court has disqualified you before
On a conviction, and it doesn't matter how long ago — last year or twenty years ago counts the same.
✔ You're facing a disqualification the judge can't avoid
Driving while disqualified, driving while suspended and breach of a limited licence are the usual ones. They're not the only ones.
✔ You're not in one of the excluded groups
A repeat drink-drive or drug-drive within five years, an alcohol interlock sentence, or a transport service disqualification will close it off. This is the first thing we check. More on repeat drink-drive charges →
Two things you've probably read are not requirements: you don't have to be about to lose your job, and it doesn't have to be a driving-while-disqualified charge. Both help. Neither is the law.
People we've kept on the road
The police opposed several of these. All were granted.
Builder, twenty years in the trade, caught twice → kept working.
He'd been disqualified after a drink-drive conviction, then was stopped twice and charged twice with driving while disqualified — both times driving for work. Another disqualification would have ended a career built on HT licences and wheels-and-tracks endorsements. The police opposed the application. After written submissions were filed, the order was granted.
Years of old charges caught up with him after he'd turned it around → granted over police opposition.
He faced multiple driving-while-disqualified charges, most of them historic, because he'd failed to appear years earlier. By the time they caught up with him he had married, had children and was the sole earner in a good driving job. Submissions and an affidavit were prepared. The police opposed it. The judge granted the order and he kept the job.
Apprentice mechanic who drove his mates home from a bar → apprenticeship saved.
Disqualified after a drink-drive conviction, he took a call from friends who needed a ride late at night, and drove. His employer was on the point of dismissing him because driving was written into his employment agreement. Detailed submissions were prepared, and the court ordered community work instead of a further disqualification.
Two days into a new job, and he breached the limited licence → kept the job.
On a benefit, he was offered work driving trucks and needed a limited licence to take it. We got the licence. Two days later he was stopped, having driven outside the area it allowed, and charged with breaching it. Submissions and affidavits were filed, and the section 94 order was granted. Without it he'd have lost the job and gone back on the benefit.
Section 94 FAQs
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The law allows anywhere from 40 to 400 hours, and where you land depends on the offending and what the judge would otherwise have done. In the cases on this page it's typically been between 40 and 100. The judge can still fine you as well — a section 94 order replaces the disqualification, not the whole sentence.
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No. The court can impose community work, community detention, supervision or intensive supervision. Where someone genuinely can't do physical work, supervision is available if a suitable programme exists and you attend it. Tell us at the first appointment — it changes what we ask for.
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Four things, and hardship isn't one of them — which surprises most people, because a limited licence works that way and this doesn't. The judge weighs: the circumstances of the case and of you; whether your last disqualification actually achieved anything; what a further disqualification would do to you; and the interests of the public.
The second is the one the application turns on, and the one that needs handling carefully. The third is where your employer's letter and your roster do their work. If the judge agrees, the law says they must impose a community-based sentence instead.
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Probably not on its own, and it's worth getting right before you spend anything. This asks whether a court has previously disqualified you on conviction — a demerit points suspension comes from the transport agency, not a judge. If a court has also disqualified you at some point, that's what counts, and plenty of people have without thinking of it that way. It's the first thing we check.
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For a first or second driving-while-disqualified charge, prison isn't the usual outcome — the maximum is three months, and the sentence is far more often a fine and a disqualification. It becomes a genuine risk at a third or subsequent charge, where the maximum rises to two years. If you're in that territory you'll be told so directly on the first call rather than reassured, because it changes how the whole matter is run.
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No. They oppose these routinely, and several of the orders above were granted over their opposition after argument. Opposition raises the standard the paperwork has to meet. It doesn't decide the outcome — the judge does.
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Not for appointments — those are by phone or Zoom wherever you are, Invercargill to Cape Reinga. Your court dates are at the court where the charge was laid, and Melanie appears for you. Whether you personally need to be there on each date depends on the court and the stage, and we'll tell you which ones need you.
One call tells you where you stand.
$230, phone or Zoom, usually the same day. You'll come off it knowing whether this is open to you, what we'd need from you this week, and exactly what the whole thing costs.
If it isn't open to you, you'll be told that on the call — not after you've paid for an application.
What our customers say
Melanie acts for clients throughout New Zealand — Invercargill to Cape Reinga. You won't need to travel to Auckland, and she can often cover the interim appearances so you're not taking days off work.