Thread: Off to the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, any tips?

I've been there but not in regards to vehicles.


The first visit to the tribunal will be for mediation. You'll have someone who has hopefully read your case & he'll attempt to nut out a solution between the 2 parties. If an agreement was negotiated previously, hopefully the dealer will see sense & agree to it again when he's actually at the tribunal stage. If he does agree, a court order will be written up & he's bound by that.
Unfortunately, you may also find that the NCAT & Fair Trading have different interpretations of the law and/or situation.


I don't think you can be hit with legal costs at the tribunal. You may want to call the NCAT & discuss that with them. Hopefully they don't just fob you off to someone in the legal profession. Maybe approach your local motoring association - the NRMA used to give free legal advice in vehicle matters.




Here's my experience if you have a spare hour or so:
Laitance on a new slab - how to approach removal/repair?

Hi,

I have been to various tribunals before, and have been satisfied every time. However, a win in tribunal does not always result in deposit of funds..... I believe that as the tribunals are set up for punters to avoid lawyers, if one side or the other choose to use one, legal costs will not be awarded.
The initial mediation is probably the most important, and can save both sides some considerable grief......
Good luck with it!!

Gumnut

went in Vic re a trailer. order to repay me was ignored. Sheriff's office here was able to get the money for me plus Sheriff's office costs


NSW seems to have the same system. The Vic Tribunal (VCAT) was fairly easy to negotiate with out legal advice for me. The other side did not even bother to turn up to defend in my case.

Office of the Sheriff of New South Wales

I wonder if you could just get all the required work done paid for by the dealer. Shame to give back a nice D3

Well I showed up for mediation, the other party didn't. A tribunal date was set. We saw a lawyer to get our paperwork in order and submitted it on time.

The other party did not submit a response to our claim, but has contacted us with a weak offer.

The tribunal date is later this month half tempted to ignore the offer and wait for the tribunal...

In my experience, the fact that the respondent did not show up for mediation will have the tribunal fairly upset.

Have your evidence in order. If possible, submit a concise and well written case and get it in front of the tribunal member.
Once you've had a decision in your favour, Register it with the magistrates court immediately. In QCAT (the Queensland version) any decision must be registered with magistrates court for enforcement.
All the best

Not sure if I had a win or not. I got some money that covered all the repairs we have done to the vehicle since purchasing it which is good, but we still do not have the vehicle that was described at time of sale.

For anyone else thinking of going through this experience:
- the representative of the respondent did not have a letter of authority and claimed that they didn't receive any instructions from the court, despite having out statement of claim. Although the member noted this was highly unlikely, for procedural fairness they were going to postpone the matter. That would have meant another day off work and another trip to Sydney for me.
- our claim contained statement of generality instead of specific quotes and that reduced its impact.
- our claim mixed the term rebuilt with reconditioned, not viewed as the same thing by the tribunal, which also hurt our case.

In short it was an OK outcome, for a better outcome we would have had to pay a lawyer 3-4 hrs at $400 p/hr.

In my experience it would be best to resolve prior to hearing, if you have to put a statement of claim in pay a lawyer or do not bother.