Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction Reform and Modernisation Amendment Act 2010
The Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction Reform and Modernisation
Amendment Act 2010 (the Amendment Act) was proclaimed into law on
26 August 2010.
The provisions of the legislation affecting the Queensland
workers' compensation scheme are contained in Part 22 of the
Amendment Act and have a date of commencement of 1 November
2010.
The Amendment Act amends the Workers' Compensation and
Rehabilitation Act 2003 (the Act) by replacing references to
industrial magistrate and industrial commission in section
546(3)(b), section 548A(1) and section 566(1) with a reference to
the industrial commission only. This means that from 1 November
2010, the relevant appeal body for appeals from the majority of
review decisions made by Q-COMP is the Queensland Industrial
Relations Commission.
However, the appeal body for the purposes of Chapter 12, Part 3
remains the industrial magistrate for appeals from:
- A decision of Q-COMP's board under section 107E (to approve the
amount payable under an industrial instrument)
- A decision of Q-COMP about a matter mentioned in section
540(1)(a)(i) to (vi) (decisions about premium)
- A non-reviewable decision (decisions made by an insurer under
Chapters 3 and 4 of the Act that are not reviewable by Q-COMP under
section 540).
The scale of costs to be used for appeals to the industrial
magistrate or industrial commission remains Schedule 3, Scale E
(Magistrates Court scale of costs) under the Uniform Civil
Procedure Rules 1999, in accordance with section 113 of the
Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2003.
Proceedings for criminal prosecutions of offences against the
Act are still provided for under section 579 of the Act, and have
not been amended by the Amendment Act.