Charged with a traffic offence?
The charge you're facing isn't always the charge you end up with.
Careless driving, dangerous driving, a burnout, failing to stop, driving while disqualified. We get your police file, put the case for a lesser charge to the prosecutor, and Melanie appears for you. First appointment with a barrister of 30+ years, $230 — the first half of the $460 a straightforward guilty plea costs.
✔ 30+ years experience
✔ Fixed fees, published
✔ Anywhere in NZ, by Zoom
We do the negotiating. You do the one thing we can't.
The charge written at the roadside is a starting position, not a verdict. Most traffic matters are settled by persuading the police prosecutor that a lesser charge is the right one — and that conversation is our job.
Getting dangerous driving reduced to careless driving is the difference between a mandatory six-month disqualification and no disqualification at all.
The one part we can't do for you is the part that earns it — the defensive driving course, the reparation, the apology. We'll tell you which of those apply to you, and when to start.
You'll deal with Melanie directly. No juniors and no hand-offs. And if we think you don't need a lawyer at all, we'll tell you that on the phone rather than take your money.
Why this isn't a form-filling job
There is no trick to this and we won't pretend there is. A prosecutor is persuaded by evidence, not by argument. What decides it is whether someone has read the file properly, spotted what isn't in it, and put the right case at the right moment — before a plea is entered and the charge is locked in.
What's included
Your police disclosure requested, read, and gone through with you
The charge tested against what's actually in the file
Evidence the police didn't gather — a vehicle inspection, a witness, CCTV — arranged where it's worth having
Your list of things to do, specific to your charge
Written submissions to the police prosecutor
Melanie in court for you, by Zoom if you're outside Auckland
Christopher on the phone throughout, so you're not chasing us
A fixed figure for your case before any work starts, payable in instalments
Phone and Zoom appointments nationwide. Mon–Fri 9am–9pm, Sat 2pm–6pm.
$460 for a straightforward guilty plea — one $230 appointment and one $230 appearance at the Auckland District Court.
The $460 is one appointment and one appearance at the Auckland District Court. Most traffic matters that end in a negotiated charge reduction run a few hundred dollars more, because of the submissions to the prosecutor.
We can't tell you we're the cheapest, because almost nobody else in this category publishes a price at all. What we can tell you is that ours is here, you'll be given a fixed figure for your situation before any work starts, and you can pay it in instalments.
If money is the thing stopping you from ringing, ring and say so. There's a free duty lawyer at the District Court on the day, and you may qualify for legal aid — we'll tell you if that's your better option. The Fees page lists all of it.
Legal service fees (incl gst)
Phone, Zoom or office appointment - $230
Court appearance, Auckland District Court - $230
Court appearance, other greater Auckland courts - $287
Diversion appeal submissions (plus $575 if the appeal succeeds) - $690
Section 94 community work application (plus $287 if granted) - $1,725
Section 106 discharge (5 × $575, plus $1,150 if granted) - $2,875
Defended hearing, Auckland District Court (plus $230 per preparation step) - $1,725
Serious injury or death charges - By agreement
Court filing fees
Limited licence: court-ordered disqualification - $175 + $69
Limited licence: demerit points suspension - $275 + $69
New plastic licence from NZTA - $48.70
These are paid to the court and to NZTA, and are separate from legal fees. Current as at August 2026.
If someone was seriously injured or killed, this page is the wrong size for your situation.
Dangerous or reckless driving causing injury carries up to five years' imprisonment. Causing death carries up to ten. These are not fixed-fee matters and we won't quote you one.
What we will do is take the call, read the disclosure, and give you a written fee for your case once we can see what it involves. If it's beyond what this practice should be handling, we'll tell you that and point you at someone who should.
How a charge gets reduced, and who does what
Here's the whole thing, in order. Not every step applies to every case, and we'll tell you which ones apply to yours at the first appointment.
The steps marked WE DO are ours. The one marked YOU is the part we can't do for you — and it's the part that earns the reduction.
This describes how these cases usually run. It isn't advice on yours — that depends entirely on your disclosure, which is what the first appointment is for.
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We request your police disclosure — the officer's notebook, the summary of facts, witness statements, photographs — and read it. It is often the first time anyone finds out that the police account and yours differ, and nothing sensible can be decided before that.
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Charges get laid at the scene by an officer working from what they saw in the first five minutes, and not always at the right level. Careless and dangerous are different standards, not different degrees of the same thing. We read the file against the charge and tell you whether a lesser one fits.
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This is where cases turn. A vehicle inspection that finds a mechanical fault. A witness the police didn't speak to. Dashcam or CCTV nobody pulled before it was overwritten. There's a case further down this page where exactly that changed the charge.
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A defensive driving course. Reparation to anyone hurt or whose property was damaged, paid or offered. A written apology. Voluntary community work. A donation to a charity. None of it is compulsory and none of it is a guarantee. All of it is what a prosecutor and a judge look at. You'll be given the list that applies to you.
Start early. Doing it before the hearing is worth far more than promising to do it afterwards.
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Written submissions setting out why the lesser charge fits the facts, what you've already done, and what a conviction would cost you. Sometimes the charge is reduced. Sometimes the police agree to diversion — they withdraw it altogether, usually on conditions, and you end up with no conviction and no record. Sometimes they say no, and you go to court knowing where you stand.
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Melanie appears for you, by Zoom if you're outside Auckland. How you plead is your decision, and it is the last thing that happens rather than the first. A guilty plea entered before any of this is a plea to whatever was written at the roadside.
Melanie Coxon
Barrister
Most traffic charges are decided before anyone gets to trial.
Melanie Coxon has practised traffic and criminal law in New Zealand for 30+ years. Her first case was as a junior in a murder trial. She has appeared in her own right in the High Court. She has been dealing with the same Auckland police prosecutors for three decades, and knowing who will move on what — and what moves them — is most of the job.
She has had no Law Society complaint in her practising career.
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.
When they say it's impossible, that means there are a thousand solutions.
Will I go to prison? Will I lose my licence?
Those are the two questions, usually asked in that order at two in the morning. Here are the two answers.
Prison is very unlikely
For a first traffic charge — careless driving, a burnout, failing to stop where nobody was hurt — prison is not a realistic outcome, whatever the maximum sentence in the Act says. It becomes a real possibility in two situations: where someone was seriously injured or killed, and where you've been caught driving while disqualified more than once.
If you're in neither of those, what's at risk is your licence, not your liberty. If you are in one of them, say so on the first call — it changes everything about how the case is run.
Your licence is the real question
For careless driving, the judge decides. Plenty of people are fined and keep driving.
For dangerous driving, a burnout, failing to stop, driving while disqualified, or any careless charge where somebody was injured, disqualification is mandatory on conviction. Six months minimum, and the court has no discretion about it at all.
That gap is the whole argument for getting a charge reduced. Careless driving is arguable. Dangerous driving is not. So the work goes into which one you're convicted of — and that's decided before sentencing, not at it.
Land Transport Act 1998, current as at August 2026. Maximum fines and prison terms vary by charge and by circumstance — we'll go through the range that applies to you at the first appointment. Source: Community Law — Unsafe driving. General information, not advice on your case.
Three things that change the outcome
Suspended on demerit points?
A limited licence is a court order letting you keep driving under strict conditions — usually so you can keep your job. It's the answer to a three-month suspension, and to a disqualification once any stand-down has passed.
$920 fixed, payable as 2 × $460.
Driving while disqualified?
A section 94 order lets the court sentence you to community work instead of taking your licence again. It has to be applied for at the same time as the guilty plea — once you're sentenced, it's gone.
$1,725, plus $287 if granted.
Can't afford a conviction?
A section 106 discharge means no conviction is recorded at all. It's granted where the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the offending — a job, a registration, a visa. It has to be argued properly, with evidence.
$2,875 as 5 × $575, plus $1,150 if granted.
A guilty plea takes thirty seconds, and it closes every door on this page.
It is the single most expensive thing you can do at a first appearance.Pleading guilty locks in the charge as laid. It closes off any negotiation about reducing it. It closes off a section 106 discharge. And it closes off a section 94 order, which the law requires to be applied for at the same time as the plea — miss that moment and it's gone.You are entitled to see the police disclosure before you plead, and nobody will hand it to you unless someone asks. It takes one phone call.
Charges that finished smaller than they started
Dangerous driving → careless driving. Licence kept.
A young man took a corner too fast and crashed into a shopfront. Nobody was hurt, but the damage was substantial and the charge was dangerous driving — which carries a mandatory six-month disqualification. After negotiation with the police, and reparation of $2,000 to the owner, the charge was reduced to careless driving. He was fined and kept his licence.
Careless use causing injury → the charge withdrawn entirely.
A driver turned into her own driveway without checking and a cyclist ran into the back of her car. She paid $2,000 reparation, did a defensive driving course and wrote an apology. The charge was reduced to careless driving and then resolved by diversion — the police withdrew it. No conviction, no loss of licence.
Sustained loss of traction → discharged without conviction.
A teenager did a burnout in an empty car park and found himself facing a mandatory six-month disqualification and a conviction that would have ended the career he was applying for. He completed 50 hours of voluntary work and a defensive driving course, and saved $400 to donate to a charity — none of it with any promise of a result. The police agreed not to oppose a discharge; the court suspended his licence for six months instead of convicting him.
Careless use causing injury → careless use. Fine only, no disqualification.
A driver was charged after a crash in which two of his own family were injured. A forensic inspection of the vehicle, arranged as part of the defence, found a hidden mechanical fault. On seeing it the police prosecutor agreed to reduce the charge to careless use. He was fined and kept his licence.
Traffic charge FAQs
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For plain careless driving, disqualification is at the judge's discretion — plenty of people are fined and keep driving. For dangerous driving, a burnout, failing to stop, driving while disqualified, or any careless charge where somebody was injured, it's mandatory on conviction and the minimum is six months. Which is why the work goes into what you're convicted of.
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Careless driving is falling below the standard of a reasonably prudent driver — a moment's inattention, a misjudgement. Dangerous driving is a deliberate decision to drive in a way that is objectively dangerous to other people. They're different tests, not different amounts of the same thing, and charges are often laid at the higher level.
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Usually not, and never before you've seen your full disclosure. If you've read it all and still want to plead guilty on the first appearance, that's your call and we'll do it — you'll just be asked to confirm the advice in writing.
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A first appearance is usually a few weeks after you're charged. Getting disclosure, doing a defensive driving course and putting submissions to the prosecutor typically adds another month or two — and that time is generally working in your favour rather than against it. We'll give you the likely timeline for your court at the first appointment.
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It can. Traffic convictions are criminal convictions and they show on a record check. They matter most for anyone who drives for a living, holds a P endorsement, holds a professional registration, or is applying for a visa or residency. If that's you, say so on the first call — it changes what's worth applying for, and it's the main reason people go for a section 106 discharge.
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Yes. Everything here can be paid in instalments — the section 106 fee is quoted as five payments of $575 for exactly that reason. Debit card, credit card or online transfer.
Find out what your charge could become.
One appointment, $230, phone or Zoom, usually the same day. You'll come off the call knowing what you're charged with, what it could realistically be reduced to, what you'd have to do to earn that, and what the whole thing will cost.
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.