VCAT Fees On the Rise

VCAT fees rise more than 300%.  The objective is higher cost recovery by increasing fees because there’s some private [versus public] benefit, but not so high that it prevents access to justice for users. The same thing was recently adopted by comparable courts eg Magistrates Court.

The rationale is that OC matters are currently charged the ‘community fee’ but are [along with Domestic Building , Fair Trading]:

• Increasingly commercial in nature, and/or
• Involve large claims
• Usually involve parties with the ability to pay a higher fee and raise questions with a lesser benefit than some other cases as the decision turns on the facts of the case and do not inform a general understanding of the scope of the relevant law
• Many matters are more costly to run than others for which the community fee is currently also charged

 

Value of cases	No of Cases	Current OC List Fees	Proposed OC LIst Fees**
More than $ 10K	2,500 (85%)	$38.80	$160.40
$10K - $ 100K	529 (15%)	$38.80	$502.40
$100K - $1 Million	5 (0.1%)	$38.80	$1,007.40
> than $ 1 Million	0 %	$38.80	$2,014.80

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Staged over 3 years but just showing final year 3.

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