Motor Accident Injuries Act 2019

It is the intention of the Legislative Assembly that any provision of a territory law that provides for limits on liability for personal injury including damages, resulting from motor accidents that happen in the ACT—

is to apply to the full extent of the Legislative Assembly’s capacity to legislate extraterritorially, even if damages are assessed outside the ACT; and

is to be regarded by courts as a substantive rather than a procedural provision.

Subsection (3) applies if, in a proceeding on a claim for damages brought in another jurisdiction, a person recovers damages in excess of the total of the following (the ACT total):

the defined benefits that would have been payable under this Act;

the maximum amount that could have been recovered if the proceeding had been brought in the ACT.

The respondent may recover as a debt from the person the amount by which the damages exceed the ACT total.

Note An amount owing under a law may be recovered as a debt in a court of competent jurisdiction or the ACAT (see Legislation Act, s 177).

In this section:

another jurisdiction means a jurisdiction other than the ACT and includes a jurisdiction outside Australia.