Driving licence and criminal proceedings: keep files separate

In driving licence proceedings, the competent administrative authority examines whether the requirements for holding a licence continue to be met. Section 7 FSG links traffic reliability to proven specified facts and their assessment. Section 24 FSG governs withdrawal or restriction of the driving entitlement.

The administrative file should therefore contain the driving licence decision with its operative part and reasons, the information on legal remedies, proof of service and every attachment identified in the decision. Assign each document to the file number stated on it.

The licence withdrawal focus area explains the administrative decision and its place in the proceedings. The withdrawal decision check helps organise the relevant documents.

Correspondence from the public prosecution office or an ordinary criminal court generally belongs in a separate criminal-proceedings file. This includes summonses, notices, indictments, applications for punishment and court decisions. This article does not assess criminal-law questions.

The two files may concern the same incident. That creates a connection through the facts and the timeline, but it does not merge the files. The outcome of criminal proceedings does not automatically answer every question in the driving licence proceedings. What matters is which findings and records the driving licence authority relied upon in its own case.

When arranging file inspection in driving licence proceedings, present the complete administrative file separately from criminal-proceedings originals.

The sender alone does not determine the file. Under section 39 FSG, police officers may also act in driving licence proceedings, for example by temporarily seizing a licence and forwarding the matter to the authority. A police document may also have another procedural purpose.

Check the wording, file number, named authority, date and attachments. A document about provisional seizure must be treated differently from a summons or request in criminal proceedings. The article on provisional driving licence seizure explains this administrative step in more detail.

Keep a chronology showing the date, sender, file number, proceeding and a short description of every document. Add the date of service and any deadline or response mentioned in the letter. The chronology connects the timelines without mixing the files.

Store originals and complete scans in the appropriate file. Mark copies supplied to the other file clearly as copies. This keeps the source of each document and the authority that used it identifiable.

If one proceeding refers to a document from the other, record that connection in the chronology and keep the original in the file in which it was issued or received.

• complete driving licence decision with reasons, remedies information and attachments
• proof of service or the envelope showing the service date
• letters from the police, driving licence authority, prosecution office or criminal court
• file number, sender and date for every document
• shared chronology with a clear reference to both files

If a page, attachment or proof of service is missing, record the gap and preserve the original you have. Do not reconstruct missing content from memory. The article on traffic reliability in driving licence proceedings explains why the decision, reasons and complete file must be read together.