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Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

Complaints and investigations - Proceedings before Human Rights Review Tribunal

54: Powers of Human Rights Review Tribunal

You could also call this:

"What the Human Rights Review Tribunal can do to help you if someone breaks the rules."

Illustration for Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

If you go to the Human Rights Review Tribunal because someone has broken the Code, the Tribunal can help you. The Tribunal can say the person was wrong, stop them from doing it again, or make them pay damages as stated in section 57. The Tribunal can also make the person do something to fix the problem.

The Tribunal can make the person who did something wrong pay costs, even if they do not make any other order. If the Director of Proceedings is involved, they might have to pay costs, which would be paid by the Commissioner.

It does not matter if the person who broke the Code did not mean to, the Tribunal can still help you. The Tribunal will think about what the person did when deciding what to do.

If a health practitioner has done something wrong, the Tribunal will look at what happened in any disciplinary proceedings and what penalty they got.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM334115.

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"Time limits apply when taking someone to the Human Rights Review Tribunal."

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Part 4Complaints and investigations
Proceedings before Human Rights Review Tribunal

54Powers of Human Rights Review Tribunal

  1. If, in any proceedings under section 50 or section 51, the Tribunal is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that any action of the defendant is in breach of the Code, it may grant 1 or more of the following remedies:

  2. a declaration that the action of the defendant is in breach of the Code:
    1. an order restraining the defendant from continuing or repeating the breach, or from engaging in, or causing or permitting others to engage in, conduct of the same kind as that constituting the breach, or conduct of any similar kind specified in the order:
      1. damages in accordance with section 57:
        1. an order that the defendant perform any acts specified in the order with a view to redressing any loss or damage suffered by the aggrieved person as a result of the breach:
          1. such other relief as the Tribunal thinks fit.

            1. In any proceedings under section 50 or section 51, the Tribunal may award such costs against the defendant as it thinks fit, whether or not it makes any other order, or may award costs against the plaintiff, or may decline to award costs against either party.

            2. Where the Director of Proceedings is the plaintiff, any costs awarded against him or her shall be paid by the Commissioner, and the Commissioner shall not be entitled to be indemnified by the complainant or, as the case may be, the aggrieved person.

            3. It shall not be a defence to proceedings under section 50 or section 51 that the breach was unintentional or without negligence on the part of the defendant or any officer or employee or member of the defendant, but the Tribunal shall take the conduct of the defendant or, as the case may require, of any officer or employee or member of the defendant into account in deciding what, if any, remedy to grant.

            4. In any proceedings under section 50 or section 51 in respect of any action of a health practitioner, the Tribunal shall, where that action has been the subject of disciplinary proceedings, have regard to the findings of the body before which those disciplinary proceedings were heard and to any penalty imposed on that health practitioner in those proceedings.

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            Notes
            • Section 54 heading: amended, on , by section 71(1) of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001 (2001 No 96).
            • Section 54(5): amended, on , by section 16 of the Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 49).