Page 1161 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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Two of the main objects of Schedule 4 of the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act are consumer protection and to enable the creation of schemes to limit the civil liability of professionals and others. The professional standards scheme ensures that professionals have professional indemnity insurance. This means that a consumer who suffers economic loss as a result of professional negligence will have access to compensation, even if the professional in question is bankrupt.
Professional standards schemes limit the amount of damages that may be recovered. This reduces the risk for insurers which results in lower insurance premiums for professionals. However, the limit on damages is often still very high—for example, the South Australian Bar Association professional standard scheme caps damages at $1,500,000.
The amendment, by allowing the extension of an interstate professional standard scheme to operate retrospectively, will protect consumers by ensuring that professionals operating under the interstate scheme were required to have insurance for the time between the expiry of the scheme and its extension in the ACT.
By preventing a litigant from being able to make a claim for damages above the limit set out in the professional standards scheme, the amendment will also provide certainty to consumers and professionals about the maximum amount that may be claimed.
The Committee’s report considers the effect of the limit of the 12 month extension, and considers whether the amendment would allow an extension of a scheme to occur up to 12 months after the expiry of this scheme. While this is correct, the extension of the operation of the scheme could only be for up to 12 months from the expiry of that scheme. If a scheme was to be extended 11 months after its expiry, for example, it could only be extended for one more month into the future with a retrospective effect for the preceding 11 months.
In the case of an interstate scheme, the ACT is limited by the extension of that scheme in its originating jurisdiction. If another jurisdiction extends that scheme for six months, the ACT would not be able to extend the scheme’s operation for longer than six months and would therefore not be in a position 12 months after its expiry to be able to extend it.
In a situation where the notification of an instrument extending an interstate professional standards scheme takes place the day before expiry in the originating jurisdiction (which also may not allow the ACT sufficient time to also notify the scheme the day before expiry) this amendment allows for that extension to be applied in the ACT, to ensure the consumer protection benefits described above.
Madam Speaker, the JACS bill also makes a minor yet important amendment to the Family Violence Act 2016. This amendment addresses a drafting inconsistency and will ensure that the text of the legislation reflects the intention behind it. This change will allow people with family violence orders under the Domestic Violence and Protection Orders Act 2008 to make an application in the ACT for those orders to be declared as recognised orders and therefore treated as recognised orders across all the jurisdictions. This will reduce the burden for victims of family and domestic violence
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