Commissioner of Victims Rights v Dobbie

[2019] NSWCA 183

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Administrative Law
2. › Judicial review
3. › Victim's compensation claim
4. › Primary victim of domestic violence
5. › Claim for 'severely disabling' psychological disorder
6. › Whether delegate attributed incorrect meaning to 'severely disabling'
7. › Victims Compensation Act 1996 (NSW), Sch 1, cl 10
1. Administrative Law
2. › Judicial review
3. › Legal unreasonableness
4. › Expert assessment by designated qualified person
5. › Whether delegate obliged to follow expert's assessment absent countervailing evidence
6. › Whether delegate's rejection of assessment manifestly unreasonable
7. › Victims Compensation Act 1996 (NSW), Sch 1, cl 5
1. Appeal
2. › Leave to appeal
3. › Precondition of grant
4. › Small amount at stake in individual case
5. › Relevance to large number of claims
6. › Whether matter of principle or public interest
7. › Error identified without setting aside judgment below
8. › Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW), s 101(2)(r)

Quick Take

Where a statute requires an application to be accompanied by an assessment from a designated expert, the decision-maker must have a rational basis for rejecting that assessment; reliance on older, less relevant material that the expert has already considered does not provide such a basis.