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Guide 4 - Costs (Section 35)
 

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Section 35 of the Victims Support and Rehabilitation Act 1996 states that an applicant for statutory compensation is entitled to be paid costs in respect of his or application for statutory compensation whether or not proceedings are taken before the Tribunal on appeal or otherwise.

The scale of costs is set out in Clause 12 of the Victims Compensation Rule 1997 No 125.

Under Section 35(3) costs may be awarded in excess of the scale if special circumstances of the case justify such an award being made. The Tribunal or compensation assessor may also decline to make an award of costs or award costs of a lesser sum than that prescribed.

Under Section 35(5) the costs incurred in connection with a medical report prepared for the purpose of an application for statutory compensation may be disallowed if in the opinion of the Tribunal or compensation assessor the fees charged for the report are grossly excessive.

The terms of Section 35(4) and (6) should be noted.

A number of complaints arising out of costs charged in Victims Compensation Tribunal matters are regularly dealt with by the Law Society’s Professional Conduct Committee. An article in Law Society Journal of August 1998 deals with this issue. That article at p32 says:
    “The first point to note about s35 of the Victims Compensation Act 1996 is that subsection (4) is to the effect that a solicitor may not charge or recover any more for costs than is allowed by the Tribunal. Because these costs are paid by the Tribunal s35(6) prevents the solicitor from contracting out of the provisions of s35(4)”.
At p33 the article deals with those applications which are dismissed and where professional costs are not allowed.
    “It should be noted however that if the assessor disallows professional costs, the solicitor cannot recover such costs nor any disallowed legal disbursements from the applicant or client because of the effect of s35(4)”.
Cec Brahe
Chairperson, Victims Compensation Tribunal
28 April 2000




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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