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Accident Compensation Act 2001

Miscellaneous provisions - Proceedings

321: Powers of Corporation when person has right to bring proceedings

You could also call this:

“What ACC can do if you have the right to sue someone for your injury”

This law explains what happens when you get hurt and can get help from the government, but you also have the right to sue someone for your injury.

If you’re getting help from the government for an injury and you can sue someone for that injury, the government can ask you to do one of two things:

  1. You can try to sue the person who hurt you.
  2. You can let the government sue that person instead of you.

The government will pay for whichever option you choose.

If you’ve already gotten money from suing someone or settling with them for your injury, and the government has helped you or will help you with that same injury, the government can:

  1. Take some money off the help they give you, based on how much you got from suing or settling.
  2. Ask you to pay back the help they’ve already given you.

But there are some types of money the government can’t take or ask you to pay back. These include:

  1. Money you get from your own insurance (except for a specific type of accident insurance).
  2. Money from your retirement savings.
  3. Money you get as damages awarded by a court under any law.

This law helps make sure that people don’t get paid twice for the same injury, once by the government and once by suing someone else.

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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=DLM103479.

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Part 9 Miscellaneous provisions
Proceedings

321Powers of Corporation when person has right to bring proceedings

  1. Subsection (2) applies when—

  2. any entitlement is required to be provided under this Act for personal injury to a person; and
    1. the person has the right to bring proceedings for damages in New Zealand or elsewhere for the personal injury.

      1. When this subsection applies, the Corporation may require a person to do one of the following things, at the person's option and at the Corporation's expense:

      2. to take all reasonable steps to enforce the right; or
        1. to assign the right to the Corporation, and to do all other things necessary to enable the right to be enforced by the Corporation, within a reasonable period.

          1. Subsection (4) applies when—

          2. any entitlement has been or is required to be provided under this Act for personal injury to a person; and
            1. the person has received a sum of money by way of damages, compensation, or settlement of any claim in New Zealand or elsewhere for the personal injury.

              1. When this subsection applies, the Corporation may, as the case requires,—

              2. deduct, from the cost of the entitlement required to be provided to a person, a sum equivalent to the net amount received by way of damages, compensation, or settlement; or
                1. recover from the person, as a debt due, the entitlement provided.

                  1. Nothing in subsection (4) applies to—

                  2. any money paid on a claim by the person under an insurance contract (other than an accident insurance contract under the Accident Insurance Act 1998) taken out by the person:
                    1. any payment from a retirement scheme (within the meaning of section 6(1) of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013):
                        1. any damages awarded under any Act.

                          Notes
                          • Section 321(5)(b): amended, on , by section 150 of the Financial Markets (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2013 (2013 No 70).
                          • Section 321(5)(c): repealed, on , by section 187 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).