The NSW Government’s review into the legal and administration costs in dust diseases compensation claims was released last week to general approval.

Robert Pelletier, a partner at Sydney law firm Toomey Pegg Drevikovsky, told Sunrise Exchange News the review of costs of administering compensation for dust diseases in NSW “will significantly change the way lawyers handle these cases, and should dramatically reduce the legal cost of claims”.

He says the centrepiece of the reforms is the proposal that most claims be dealt with by a new claims resolution process. “Parties will have to lay their cards on the table early in the claim with the exchange of information and key documents,” he said. “Matters that can’t be informally settled will go to compulsory mediation.”

The recommendations will decrease the volume of the tribunal dramatically, Mr Pelletier says. It would be restricted to hearing urgent cases and test cases where there is a new issue that needs a judicial decision. “This is done by requiring parties to exchange information in the new claims resolution process which is designed to encourage settlement without reference to the tribunal.

“The real action will be when the defendants and insurers sit at the negotiating table with the Government to work out what the ‘standard presumptions’ will be for working out what share each defendant in a multiple defendant case or each cross-defendant to a cross-claim should bear,” he said.

The review recommends that the NSW Government releases a draft regulation for further comment in April and that it conduct negotiations with key stakeholders so that the new arrangements can take effect from July 1.

Mr Pelletier says the review does not address such contentious issues as caps on damages, out of state claims where the tribunal goes on a circuit to other states, making the tribunal part of the District Court “and other issues that were outside its terms of reference”.