New South Wales Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

LOCAL COURTS (CIVIL CLAIMS) ACT 1970 - SECT 12

12 Limits of jurisdiction

(1) Subject to this Part, a court sitting in its General Division has jurisdiction to hear and determine actions for the recovery of any debt, demand or damage (whether liquidated or unliquidated) in which the amount claimed is not more than $60,000, whether on a balance of account or after an admitted set-off or otherwise.

(2) Subject to this Part, a court sitting in its General Division has jurisdiction to hear and determine actions commenced after the commencement of this section to recover goods that are detained, or to recover the assessed value of the goods, if the value of the goods together with the amount of any consequential damages claimed for the detention of the goods does not exceed $60,000.

(3) Subject to this Part, a court sitting in its Small Claims Division has jurisdiction to hear and determine actions for the recovery of any debt, demand or damage (whether liquidated or unliquidated) in which the amount claimed is not more than $10,000, whether on a balance of account or after an admitted set-off or otherwise.

(4) Subject to this Part, a court sitting in its Small Claims Division has jurisdiction to hear and determine actions commenced after the commencement of this section to recover goods that are detained, or to recover the assessed value of the goods, if the value of the goods together with the amount of any consequential damages claimed for the detention of the goods does not exceed $10,000.

(5) Nothing in subsection (3) or (4) prevents an action under the subsection from being heard and determined by a court sitting in its General Division.

(6) If the amount claimed in an action includes interest (being interest which the court could, under section 39A (1), order to be included in the amount for which it could give judgment) that interest is to be disregarded for the purposes of:

(a) determining whether the maximum amount for which the action is authorised by this Act to be brought has been exceeded or not, and

(b) determining whether or not the court sitting in a Division has jurisdiction to hear and determine the action.

(7) If:

(a) this section is amended, or a rule is made, to increase an amount specified in this section, and

(b) an action in which an amount of money is claimed is pending in a court when the amendment or rule takes effect,

the court may, on the application of a plaintiff, make an order altering the amount specified in the claim to an amount not exceeding the relevant amount as increased.

(8) In this section, "admitted set-off", in relation to an action, means set-off admitted by the plaintiff in the document by the filing of which the action is commenced.

(9) In this section, a reference to an action extends to an action referred to in section 68 of the Fair Trading Act 1987 .

Note: The effect of subsection (9) is to confer jurisdiction on a Local Court in respect of actions for damages referred to in section 68 of the Fair Trading Act 1987 . That jurisdiction is similar to the jurisdiction conferred on a Local Court by section 86 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 of the Commonwealth in respect of actions for damages referred to in section 82 of that Act.