In November 2020 the VOCA Act was amended to enable the Chief Magistrate to delegate powers to a new class of decision maker known as Tribunal Officers.
In March of 2021, the Chief Magistrate issued a Delegation of Powers to Tribunal Officers and in June 2021, issued Practice Direction 3 of 2021 - Tribunal Officer List.
Pursuant to the Chief’s delegation, Tribunal Officers (TOs) have the power to determine,
1. Applications pursuant to section 33 of the Act made by primary victims for the assistance available under section 8 and 8A of the Act, including applications for interim awards of assistance,
Save for applications where the act of violence alleged:
(a) is a sexual assault as defined in subsection (b) of the definition of relevant offence in section 3(1) of the Act; or
(b) arises in circumstances of family violence as defined in sections 5 to 7 (both inclusive) of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 and the alleged offender is a family member as defined in section 354 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009; or
(c) is an attempt to commit a sexual assault or a family violence offence; or
(d) was not reported to police within a reasonable time
2. Applications for extension of time to make an application under section 29 of the Act.
3. Applications under section 60 of the Act for variations of awards made to primary victims.
The Instrument of Delegation to Tribunal Officers does not apply to secondary or related victim applications.
The Tribunal Officer List (TOL) will be based at Melbourne and will process all files within the TO delegation from registration through to determination.
Effective from 1 July 2021 and thereafter, all new files from across the state that fall within the TO delegation will be forwarded by VOCAT Registrars to Melbourne for management within the TOL.
The creation of the TOL will further assist VOCAT to achieve timely completion of files in readiness for the Governments new Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS).
From 1 July, if you have a new application which falls within TO delegation please file to the TOL address below. Eligible online applications will be automatically forwarded to the list.
The Tribunal Officer List
Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal
223 William St, Melbourne VIC 3000
or DX 350080