The Court held that the Tribunal's refusal to award costs against the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner under cl 46D(3) of Schedule 1 to the VCAT Act was a discretionary decision reviewable on House v The King principles, not a correctness standard. The quashing of a guilt finding, withdrawal of charges, absence of any finding of misconduct, and duration of proceedings were characterised as likely preconditions to the operation of cl 46D(3) rather than themselves constituting 'special circumstances' — something more, out of the ordinary, uncommon or unusual, must be shown to make a costs order against the VLSC appropriate. The Court also held that no denial of procedural fairness arose from the Tribunal's refusal to admit evidence of alleged VLSC misconduct where the practitioner had advanced no proper basis for those serious allegations across multiple interlocutory applications.
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