Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

Complaints and investigations - Referral of complaints to agencies, persons, statutory officers, or advocates

37: Commissioner may refer complaint to advocate

You could also call this:

"The Commissioner can send your complaint to a helper to try to resolve the issue."

Illustration for Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

The Commissioner can send your complaint to an advocate at any time after they have done a preliminary assessment. This means the advocate will try to help you and the other party agree on a solution. If the Commissioner sends your complaint to an advocate, the advocate must try their best to resolve the issue by getting you and the other party to agree. The advocate must then tell the Commissioner how it went. The advocate's report must say what you and the other party agreed on, what you did not agree on, and anything else the advocate thinks is important.

If you want to see the advocate's report, you can ask the Commissioner for a copy. The Commissioner must give you a copy if you ask for it. You can read more about the law that allows the Commissioner to do this in the Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Act 2003.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM333969.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Healthcare servicesRights and equality > Anti-discrimination
Previous

36: Referrals of complaints to certain statutory officers, or

"When you complain, the Commissioner checks if another officer should help, and tells you what happens next."

Next

38: Commissioner may decide to take no action or no further action on complaint, or

"The Commissioner can choose not to investigate your complaint or stop investigating it if they think it's not needed."

Part 4Complaints and investigations
Referral of complaints to agencies, persons, statutory officers, or advocates

37Commissioner may refer complaint to advocate

  1. At any time after completing a preliminary assessment of a complaint (whether or not the Commissioner is investigating, or continuing to investigate, the complaint himself or herself), the Commissioner may refer the complaint to an advocate for the purpose of resolving the matter by agreement between the parties concerned.

  2. On a referral of a complaint, under subsection (1), the advocate must—

  3. use his or her best endeavours to resolve the complaint by agreement between the parties concerned; and
    1. report the results of those endeavours to the Commissioner.

      1. Every report made under subsection (2)(b) must record—

      2. the terms of any agreement reached between the parties concerned; and
        1. if agreement is not reached on all matters, those matters on which agreement is reached and those matters on which no agreement is reached; and
          1. any other matters that the advocate thinks fit.

            1. A copy of every report made under subsection (2)(b) must, on request, be made available by the Commissioner to each of the parties concerned.

            Notes
            • Section 37: substituted, on , by section 9 of the Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 49).