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Canberra Today 17°/22° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Corbell’s plan falls short, says Law Society chief

ONLY hours after it was officially proposed, ACT Law Society president Noor Blumer has branded one aspect of the ACT Government’s plan to establish an Industrial Magistrate “counterproductive”.

Whilst applauding the idea of creating a specialised Industrial Court, Ms Blumer warns it would be overburdened by having to handle both workers compensation cases and civil compensation claims, which often arise from the same incidents, saying that both cases would be “compromised”.

“Loading up an Industrial Magistrate with responsibility for all workers compensation common law claims as well as occupational health and safety disputes is counterproductive,” Ms Blumer said by email this afternoon.

ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell introduced a draft of the Bill that would establish the new Industrial Court to the Legislative Assembly, meaning it is open for public consultation.

The Law Society president has offered to help the government improve the draft legislation, but also believes the consultation period, which ends on May 29, is not long enough.

If the draft becomes law, all civil claims arising from workplace injuries will be handled by the new Industrial Magistrate, where currently those under $250,000 are heard by the civil jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court and those over $250,000 by the Supreme Court.

Ms Blumer said there were important differences between statutory workers compensation cases and civil cases where the injured person sues for damages, both of which the Industrial Magistrate would be required to deal with under the draft.

“The one magistrate could not properly deal with both the work safety breaches and then deal with a common law claim for damages,” Ms Blumer said. “The legal principles and evidentiary requirements are substantially different and could not be heard together without compromising both cases.”

“If the proposal is what it appears, the end result would be radically different to other jurisdictions,” Ms Blumer said, contradicting Mr Corbell’s claim that the Industrial Court “would bring the ACT into line with all other Australian jurisdictions, except Tasmania”.

The ACT Law Council supports a call to appoint a fifth judge to the Supreme Court so that it can resolve cases faster, but Ms Blumer said that burdening the Industrial Court with civil claims over $250,000 would not be worth the decrease in workload it would mean for the Supreme Court.

“If the proposal for the Industrial Court goes ahead in its current draft form, then it is likely to reduce the matters before the Supreme Court to some degree, but not so significantly as to make it worthwhile to compromise the effectiveness of an Industrial Magistrates Court in the manner proposed.”

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Ian Meikle, editor

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