“Simple offence” is the Act’s term for the everyday criminal work of the District Court: drunk and disorderly, assault under the Summary Offences Act, traffic offences, breaches of a liquor or business licence. The label has consequences for time limits, procedure and sentence.
The definition
“Simple offence” means an offence punishable on summary conviction before a court by fine, imprisonment or otherwise.
An offence (a) declared to be treason, crime, misdemeanour or indictable offence; or (b) punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding 12 months, is an indictable offence. An offence that is not an indictable offence is punishable on summary conviction.
Put the two together and a simple offence is any offence that is neither declared indictable nor punishable by more than 12 months. The Criminal Code’s own term for the same thing is “simple offence”, and it also uses “summary offence”; the Magistrates’ Manual treats the three phrases as interchangeable.
The classification is done offence by offence, not Act by Act. The Criminal Code is mostly indictable offences but contains simple offences too, for example in Chapter 44 dealing with certain property offences; the Summary Offences Act is entirely simple offences; and the regulatory statutes, from the Liquor (Licensing) Act to the Environment Act, each create their own. Constitution section 37(2) requires every offence to be defined by, and its penalty prescribed by, a written law, so there is always a section to look at, and that section answers the question.
Three things turn on it. A simple offence can be charged only within a fixed time. It is tried by any magistrate, without any election by the Public Prosecutor and without a committal. And, where its penalty does not include imprisonment, it can be heard in the defendant’s absence once the summons has been served. An indictable offence differs on all three.
The Summary Offences Act
For the avoidance of doubt, each of the offences in this Act are simple offences to be tried summarily.
That Act is the largest single source of simple offences: drunkenness, assault, provoking a breach of the peace, fighting, carrying weapons, false pretences, unlawfully on premises, indecent exposure, damaging property, gaming, obstructing or assaulting a police officer, and the traffic provisions in Part IX. Section 2A was inserted because some of its penalties were raised above 12 months, which under the Interpretation Act would otherwise have made those offences indictable.
Section 36 of the District Courts Act requires an information for a simple offence to be laid within six months after the matter arose, unless another law fixes a different time. The Summary Offences Act fixes a different time: section 69 provides that no charge for an offence against that Act may be laid one year after the offence took place. See the time limit for laying a charge.
How a simple offence is tried
| Step | Provision |
|---|---|
| Charged by information, which need not be in writing or on oath if a summons is sought | ss 28, 35(2) |
| Summons or, on oath, a warrant in the first instance | ss 41, 50 |
| Heard within the province where the offence was committed or the defendant resides | s 122(1) |
| Any magistrate may try it; no election by the Public Prosecutor is needed | s 20(1)(a) |
| Plea taken in open court; hearing deemed to commence when the defendant is called on to plead | s 128 |
| Exceptions and excuses need not be negatived in the information; the burden of proving them is on the defendant | s 64 |
| Conditional discharge without conviction available | s 132 |
| Appeal to the National Court within one month | ss 219–220 |
The Constitution shapes two of these steps. Section 37(5) permits a charge for an offence whose maximum penalty does not include imprisonment to be heard in the defendant’s absence on proof of service, and section 125(a) of the Act picks that up for simple offences; for anything carrying imprisonment the defendant must be present or brought before the Court. See hearing a charge without the defendant.
Simple offence, indictable offence triable summarily, indictable offence
The three categories behave differently at almost every stage, and a defendant should know which one applies. The same conduct can often be charged in more than one way: a fight outside a store may be charged as fighting under the Summary Offences Act, as common assault under section 335 of the Criminal Code, which is a Schedule 2 offence, or as assault occasioning bodily harm under section 340, also in Schedule 2. Which charge the police choose determines the table below.
| Simple offence | Schedule 2 offence | Other indictable offence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who tries it | Any magistrate | Principal Magistrate, if the Public Prosecutor elects | National Court, after committal |
| Time limit for the charge | Six months (s 36) | None (s 36(2)) | None |
| Hearing in absence | Only if no imprisonment | No | No (s 61(2)) |
| Maximum sentence | As the statute provides | Code maximum, capped at 10 years | Code maximum |
| Costs to an acquitted defendant | Possible under s 260A | Possible under s 260A | Not on dismissal of a committal (s 261) |
The District Courts Act is not on PacLII; it is available on vLex.
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the District Courts Act (Chapter 40) and check for later amendments. The Act is not on PacLII; the figures and time limits quoted in this series come from the consolidation to No 8 of 2000, and the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2009 changes some of them once it is brought into operation. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.