Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal: Enabling Access to Justice through Alternate Dispute Resolution

This essay discusses the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and its role in enabling access to justice through alternate dispute resolution (ADR) in a fair and equitable manner. It covers the VCAT's jurisdiction, vision, and use of ADR methods such as mediation and compulsory conference. It also highlights the strategic decisions taken by the tribunal during the pandemic to ensure speedy and cost-effective resolution of disputes.

VCAT Essay

Contents

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The term justice can be referred to as a principle which involves the just treatment of the
behavior. It is mainly rendered by a magistrate or a judge of a particular state or the country. The
Australia comprises of the jurisdiction of common law wherein the court system of it is being
originated in the system of common law of the English law. The common law of the country is
being enforced in each of its state in a uniform manner and the constitution of Australia sets the
federal system of the government1. This essay is based on the Victorian civil and administrative
tribunal which was formed through a legislation formed by the Australian government. This
essay shall cover the critical discussion on the tribunal in meeting the strategic priority for the
people of Victoria for enabling them to assess and participate in the justice.
MAIN BODY
The Victorian civil and the administrative tribunal was formed under the legislation of
Victorian civil and administrative tribunal Act of 1998. It began its operation on the day of 1st
July 1998 by amalgamating 15 of the small tribunals and board thereby creating the one stop
shop in order to handle the disputes of broad range. This tribunal is formed in a state of the
Victoria in Australia and its main purpose is to provide the affordable, efficient as well as fair
justice to the Victorian community. This purpose of the tribunal is solved by making the
decisions about huge range of the cases and also by helping the people in order to resolve their
disputes by way of giving the access to the community of the forum where they can resolve their
disputes and the tribunal makes the decisions that are required by the law in relation to
administrative cases, human rights, civil cases, residential tenancies division and environment
and planning2. The main benefit of this tribunal is that it’s jurisdiction helps the parties to have
access to the alternate dispute resolution that too without moving through the number of the pre
trial steps that may be essential in taking the case in Supreme Court or other lower division
courts.
1 Garde, Greg, "A Conversation With The Honourable Justice Greg Garde AO RFD, President Of VCAT" (2017)
6(1) Victoria University Law and Justice Journal.
2 Manke, Sunanda, Kavita Khare and S.D. Sapre, "VCAT Synchroniser-Reduction Of Buffer Size In VCAT Enabled
Next Generation SDH Networks" (2011) 22(8) European Transactions on Telecommunications.

The tribunal works on the principle of fairness where it acts in a fair manner and as per
their merits of case. it is bound by the rule of the natural justice and allows the parties to have
reasonable opportunity to give or call any evidence or question any witness and also make
submissions to the tribunal.
The vision of this tribunal is to serve a community by way of resolving the disputes in a
cost effective and timely manner. The tribunal makes use of different methods of ADR which
includes the mediation and the compulsory conference formats which remains unchanged. The
ADR plays an important role in the tribunal in facilitating the resolution to the dispute in a cost
effective and informal manner. Mediation can be referred to as a private meeting wherein the
parties are required to come together for discussing various ways in which they can reach the
agreement or the settlement with the help of the mediator. The independent mediator is required
to provide suggestions to the parties but the parties are not bound to follow the suggestions of
mediator. On other hand the compulsory conference is aimed to enable the parties to discuss
different ways of resolving the dispute in a confidential manner with one of the members of the
tribunal so that the issue is solved with privacy and confidentiality3.
As per the annual report of the tribunal, there has been rise in the cases status heard by
the administrative body which reflects the commitment of the tribunal for resolving the dispute
in the earliest manner. Whenever any decision is being agreed by the parties during the course of
compulsory conference or the mediation, that decision is being made legally binding on the
parties through the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal by giving permanent resolution of
the dispute. During the pandemic, there were many strategic decisions being taken by the
tribunal in order to solve the dispute which includes the small claims of civil cases through a fast
track service. These disputes were valued between the amounts of $500 to $10,000. The process
of mediation was conducted by way of zoom teleconference or the telephone where the tribunal
was required to identify the cases that are suitable for the fast track mediation and if both parties
involved in disputes agrees, the tribunal was required to schedule the session of mediation for
them. Through online medium, the tribunal has made sure that it makes it easier for the
community of Victoria to assess the justice and participate in it so that their disputes are being
resolved in a fair and equitable manner and also in a speedy way.
3 "Mckechnie V VCAT" (2020) 62 VR.

There are wide range of disputes which are dealt by the tribunal which includes
administrative, civil cases, human rights residential tenancies and the planning and environment
related cases. The introduction of the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal has made it
easier for the people of Victoria to have access to the justice by eliminating the pre-trial stages,
thereby saving their time and money. This tribunal has also made it easier for the parties to
resolve their wide range of disputes in a speedy and cost effective manner4.
Hence it can be said that the VCAT has made the strategic priority for the people of
Victorian community for making it easier for them to participate and also assess the justice in a
fair and equitable manner by enabling the use of principles of natural justice in it. The inclusion
of ADR in this tribunal has also made it easier for the people to resolve their dispute in an
efficient manner where the trained VCAT member participates in the process of resolving the
dispute.
4 Freckelton, Ian and Simon McGregor, "Human Rights And Review Of The Involuntary Status Of Patients With A
Mental Illness:Krackeaftermomcilovic" (2010) 17(2) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this essay that the Australian government has taken a major step by
enabling the access to justice to the people of Victoria through the legislation of Victoria civil
and administrative tribunal act of the year 1998 by establishing a body which enables them to
resolve the dispute of the people through alternate dispute resolution. These include mediation as
well as Compulsory conference. The main strategic decision taken by the tribunal was assessing
the justice to the people during the time of pandemic by way of video conference and phone
calls.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
"Mckechnie V VCAT" (2020) 62 VR
Freckelton, Ian and Simon McGregor, "Human Rights And Review Of The Involuntary Status
Of Patients With A Mental Illness:Krackeaftermomcilovic" (2010) 17(2) Psychiatry,
Psychology and Law
Garde, Greg, "A Conversation With The Honourable Justice Greg Garde AO RFD, President Of
VCAT" (2017) 6(1) Victoria University Law and Justice Journal
Manke, Sunanda, Kavita Khare and S.D. Sapre, "VCAT Synchroniser-Reduction Of Buffer Size
In VCAT Enabled Next Generation SDH Networks" (2011) 22(8) European
Transactions on Telecommunications