A court can make an order against a person or company found guilty for an offence or found liable for a contravention in a criminal prosecution or civil proceeding.
The order imposes a penalty or requires specific actions to be taken.
Types of court orders
The court decides the most appropriate order against the offender.
Types of orders are:
- Monetary (financial) penalty – the maximum penalty is the same for criminal prosecutions and civil penalty proceedings.
- Monetary benefits order – a penalty that reflects the financial benefit the offender got by breaking environmental laws.
- Adverse publicity order for the offender to publicise the offence and its impacts.
- General restoration and prevention order to prevent, reduce or fix any harm.
- Restorative project order to carry out a project to fix environmental damage or improve the environment.
- Environment audit order to engage an environmental auditor and conduct an audit.
When deciding what order or penalty, the court considers:
- why and how the law was broken (nature and extent of the conduct and the circumstances)
- the damage done (nature and extent of any loss or damage as a result of the conduct – including costs of fixing any harm)
- if the person or company has breached a civil penalty provision previously
- any relevant enforceable undertaking.
Learn more about our Fines and enforcement.
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