Remaking of the Legal Costs Orders and Ministerial Directions: Actions for Damages.
6th September 2024
The Victorian Government has approved the following three legal instruments. They were made on Tuesday 3rd September 2024:
- Ministerial Directions: Actions for Damages
- WorkCover (Pre-Litigated Claims) Legal Costs Order 2024 (LCO)
- WorkCover (Litigated Claims) LCO 2024
All three instruments will commence on 1 November 2024.
For work-related common law claims in Victoria, these three instruments are used to:
- improve the efficiency of the common law process
- provide fair legal costs to legal representatives of injured workers
- ensure the Victorian WorkCover Scheme costs are appropriately contained
The Victorian Government has remade these three instruments as part of the legislative requirement to review the Litigated Claims LCO after three years. The Pre-Litigated Claims LCO and Ministerial Directions were also included in this review to ensure all three instruments were considered as a package.
The Government Gazette notice advising these changes can be found here: https://www.gazette.vic.gov.au/gazette/Gazettes2024/GG2024S475.pdf
Next steps
WorkSafe will update and share the required forms prior to the commencement of the new instruments on 1 November 2024. These forms are:
- Form of application for common law damages (Form A)
- Authority and consent to release medical information (Form D)
More information will soon be available on the WorkSafe website.
Should you have any questions or require additional information, please contact legislation@worksafe.vic.gov.au.
