victims compensation tribunal
line
back to lawlinkvctsitemapsearchfeedbackhelp






spacer image

Guide 2 - Act of Violence (Section 5)
 

The Victims Services website has moved.

Please select this link to access the new site, or wait to be re-directed in 5 seconds.
 

 

 

Under the Victims Support and Rehabilitation Act 1996, the pre-requisite for an award of statutory compensation is the establishing of an act of violence. Act of violence is defined in Section 5 and includes the requirement that the act must have directly resulted in injury or death to a party. Injury is defined in the Dictionary to the Act and the injury necessary to establish an act of violence may or may not be the same as the compensable injury for which an award of statutory compensation is made.

In the appeal of Bourke McGuire DCJ said:
    “As I read S.5(a) the act of violence does not have to involve the offering of intentional violent conduct against the victim. It simply means that there has been an act which is violent, that occurred in the commission of an offence which has resulted in violent conduct against the victim.

    The intention of the perpetrator is irrelevant. It may well be that he merely considered himself to be acting in a violent fashion against an inanimate object however if this results in violent conduct against the victim then there has been an act of violence within the meaning of S.5(a)”. Bourke v Victims Compensation Fund Corporation, 16 December 1999, McGuire DCJ, Sydney District Court (Unreported).
Conversely there must be some actual violent conduct and it is not sufficient that an applicant was merely fearful of violent conduct.

Cec Brahe
Chairperson, Victims Compensation Tribunal
28 April 2000




| Previous Page | Back to VCT | Top of Page |
You are Required to Read the Copyright Notice & Disclaimer | Webmaster | Feedback
spacer image
The information contained on this page is not legal advice. If you have a legal problem you should talk to a lawyer before making a decision about what to do. The information on this page is written for people resident in, or affected by, the laws of New South Wales, Australia only.

most recently updated 9 January 2002