07 March 2022
Anthony Jordan
[FYI request #18574 email] Tēnā koe Anthony
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-016801
Thank you for your email 16 February 2022, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1.
Number of exemplary damage cases bought against the ACC as far back as possible
2.
Publications of those cases
3.
Process the ACC has available to guide a Claimant in making an exemplary damages case
against the ACC
Exemplary damage cases
ACC does not keep records of whether a plaintiff seeks exemplary damages and we do not have a
recording method that would allow us to easily identify all exemplary damage cases. Gathering this
information would require substantial collation and research through a manual case by case search of all
cases from 1972. Therefore, we are refusing to provide this information. This decision has been made
under section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research.
In making this decision, we have considered extending our response timeframe for your request,
charging (under the Act), and/or refining the time period. However, we have not offered these options
as we have determined that the resources required to extract the information would have a significant
impact on the everyday functions of the team(s) involved.
Publication of cases
There aren’t many published cases on exemplary damages against ACC. For the cases that are published
they can be found in the publicly available legal databases, such as the New Zealand Legal Information
Institute.
As published exemplary damage cases against ACC are publicly available, we are refusing to provide this
information. This decision has been made under section 18(d) of the Act.
Please find the following link for the New Zealand Legal Information Institute website:
http://www.nzlii.org/. Exemplary damages process
ACC does not have any process or policy for clients wishing to put an exemplary damages case against
ACC. This means that we are unable to provide this information as it does not exist, this decision was
made under section 18(e) of the Act. We recommend seeking legal advice if you wish to pursue this
avenue.
How to get in contact
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address].
GOV-016801
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sasha Wood
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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