MERIT Program | Magistrates’ Early Referral Into Treatment Program

To be eligible for MERIT, you must:

• Be an adult who is eligible for bail
• Voluntarily agree to participate in the Program
• Not be charged with a sexual offence or a strictly indictable offence, which are serious offences that can only be dealt with by the District or Supreme courts.

If you are accepted into MERIT, a treatment plan will be made which is tailored to your needs. Based on your circumstances, you might have to undergo detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling and so on. You’ll also have to undergo regular urine tests to test for drug use.

If you’re accepted into MERIT, you will be granted bail to participate in the program. This means that you’ll have to abide by any bail conditions that are imposed on you by the court – for example, you will have to be of good behaviour, and you will have to go back to court as requested by the magistrate. If you fail to abide by your bail conditions, you may be removed from the MERIT program and proceed straight to sentencing.

Once you complete the MERIT program, you will most likely go back to court to be sentenced. The magistrate hearing your case will usually receive a report from your MERIT case worker, which details how you have progressed through the program in overcoming your drug addiction. If you’ve made a positive effort to engage in the program, that will be taken into account by the magistrate, who may give you a more lenient penalty.

The following Local Courts participate in the MERIT Program: