New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LEGAL AID COMMISSION ACT 1979 - SECT 47

47 Payment of costs awarded against legally assisted persons

(1) Where a court or tribunal makes an order as to costs against a legally assisted person:

(a) except as provided by subsections (2), (3), (3A), (4) and (4A), the Commission shall pay the whole of those costs, and

(b) except as provided by subsections (3), (3A), (4) and (4A), the legally assisted person shall not be liable for the payment of the whole or any part of those costs.

(2) The Commission shall not pay an amount in excess of $5,000 (or such other amount as the Commission may from time to time determine):

(a) except as provided by paragraph (b), in respect of any one proceeding, or

(b) in respect of each party in any one proceeding, being a party who has, in the opinion of the Commission, a separate interest in the proceeding.

(3) The Commission shall not be liable to pay any costs incurred by or on behalf of a person in respect of a period during which that person was not a legally assisted person (even though those costs were ordered to be paid at a time when that person was a legally assisted person) and that person shall be liable for the payment of those costs.

(3A) Where a court or tribunal makes an order as to costs against a legally assisted person in respect of proceedings for a criminal offence in which the legally assisted person was the accused person, the legally assisted person shall be liable for the payment of the whole of those costs.

(4) Where a court or tribunal makes an order as to costs against a legally assisted person in respect of:

(a) an appeal, or an application for a new trial, made on the ground that money awarded to the legally assisted person is inadequate,

(b) an action in which the legally assisted person is successful against one or more, but not all, of the other parties to the action,

(b1) an action in which the legally assisted person is successful after having been unsuccessful in interlocutory proceedings related to the action,

(c) an action heard and determined pursuant to an order under section 42 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 ,

(d) an action brought under the Family Law Act 1975 of the Commonwealth, or

(e) an action brought under the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 of the Commonwealth,

the Commission may decline to pay the whole, or such part as it determines, of those costs and those costs or that part which the Commission has declined to pay shall be paid by the legally assisted person.

(4A) If a court or tribunal makes an order as to costs against a legally assisted person on the basis that the person did not accept an offer of compromise made in proceedings (being an offer made in accordance with rules of court or an offer of a prescribed kind):

(a) the Commission may decline to pay the whole, or such part as it determines, of those costs to the extent that they are costs incurred by the party that made the offer after the day on which the offer was made, and

(b) the legally assisted person is liable for payment of any of those costs that the Commission has declined to pay.

(5) The Commission shall give notice, in writing, to a legally assisted person, the whole or part of whose costs it has, under subsection (4) or (4A), declined to pay, of the decision to decline payment of the costs within 14 days after the decision is made.

(6) Where a decision to decline to pay the whole or part of any costs is made by a person or committee acting in pursuance of a delegation or authorisation under section 69, the person or committee shall, in a notice given under subsection (5), inform the legally assisted person that he or she has a right of appeal to a Legal Aid Review Committee against the decision.

(7) Where a person or committee referred to in subsection (6) declines the payment of costs under subsection (4) or (4A), the person or committee shall record the reasons for the decision to decline the payment.

(8) Any amount paid by the Commission under this section shall be deemed to have been paid by the legally assisted person on whose behalf it is paid.