Part A: General Terms and Conditions
General conditions
- If you register for a Tribunal portal account or access and use a Tribunal portal, you agree:
a) that you have read, understood and will comply with these Terms and Conditions; and
b) to receive electronically material for any application in relation to which you are a party.
2. If you allow someone else to access or use your Tribunal portal account, they are taken to:
a) do so as your agent and you are responsible for what they do with your account as if you had taken those actions yourself; and
b) agree to comply with the Terms and Conditions;
3. In these Terms and Conditions:
a) “applicable law” has meaning set out in clauses 28 and 29;
b) “application” means a claim brought to VCAT under an enabling enactment;
c) “Branch” refers to an office of a Business representing the business in an identified geographical region;
d) “Branch Head” means the managing officer of a Branch of a Business;
e) “Tribunal portal” means myRDRV, myVCAT or any other digital case management system that is in use by the Tribunal from time to time;
f) “health information” has the meaning prescribed in section 3 of the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) (HR Act);
g) “material” means material uploaded to a Tribunal portal in relation to an application you are a party to and includes (but is not limited to) information, documents and images;
h) “Business” means a government Department, a government agency, a non-government organisation, a community legal centre, a law practice, the office of a licensed estate agent or any other legal entity which has an Australian Business Number;
i) “Business Head” means a senior officer within a Business nominated by the Business to make a request to us to establish a Tribunal portal Business Account and receive Business Administrator access;
j) “party” means a party to a proceeding in VCAT;
k) “personal information” has the meaning prescribed in section 3 of the Privacy and Data Protection act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act);
l) “proceeding” is defined in section 3 of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1997 (Vic) (VCAT Act) in and means a proceeding in the Tribunal, including:
- an inquiry conducted by the Tribunal, including an inquiry under section 141 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010;
- a compulsory conference under section 83;
- a mediation under section 88;
- a rehearing or reassessment under Part 7 of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019; or
- an RDRV proceeding.
m) “Terms and Conditions” means these Terms and Conditions as updated from time to time;
n) “Tribunal” means the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal as established by section 8 of the VCAT Act consisting of the President, Deputy Presidents, senior members, ordinary members, principal registrar and registrars designated under section 32 of the VCAT Act;
o) “we”, “us” or “our” means CSV, VCAT and RDRV and includes our employees, agents, assigns and successors in law; and
p) “you” and “your” mean the person accessing and using a Tribunal portal, including anyone accessing and using a Tribunal portal on a party’s behalf.
Content of Tribunal portal
4. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for your use of Tribunal portals or the use of Tribunal portals by other users, including any material lodged by you or any other party.
Accessing Tribunal portals
5. You agree that you are responsible for:
a) maintaining the security of your Tribunal portal account (such as maintaining the confidentiality of your password and log in details) and for all activities that occur within your account;
b) promptly advising us if any of the information relating to your Tribunal portal account changes, such as your contact information;
c) monitoring your Tribunal portal account in order to view any material that has been uploaded by us or another party;
d) complying with any requirements as set out in orders or notices issued by the Tribunal;
e) taking all reasonable steps to ensure that material you upload to or download from a Tribunal portal will not corrupt or damage your property, our property, or the property of any other user or party; and
f) promptly reporting any suspicious or unauthorised activity in relation to your account by contacting us.
Using a Tribunal portal
6. You agree that:
a) you will only use our Tribunal portals for their intended purposes, including to lodge, view and serve applications or other material that relates to your proceeding, and that you will not lodge any threatening or offensive material on a Tribunal portal;
b) we will, in our absolute discretion, determine whether you have used our Tribunal portals in breach of these Terms and Conditions or any applicable laws and take such action as we consider appropriate, including removing any material that we consider breaches these Terms and Conditions or any applicable laws and suspending or cancelling your Tribunal portal account;
c) you indemnify us against any loss or damage that arises as a result of your use of your Tribunal portal account in breach of these Terms and Conditions or any applicable laws;
d) you will comply with all applicable laws when using our Tribunal portals including ensuring that the information you lodge, or otherwise provide, via a Tribunal portal complies with these Terms and Conditions and all applicable laws; and
e) you acknowledge that some material on our Tribunal portals may be subject to court or Tribunal orders or laws limiting or prohibiting publication, and you agree that those orders and laws continue to apply to that material even though it appears on a Tribunal portal.
Fees
7. Certain applications made within a Tribunal portal may incur a fee under the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Fees) Regulations 2016. If you do not pay a fee that is required for your application type, the Tribunal cannot progress your application until either payment is made, the fee is waived or the fee is reduced and the revised amount is paid.
Intellectual property
8. VCAT's Tribunal portals and all related data, features and functionality are protected by relevant copyright laws. You acknowledge and agree that by accessing and using Tribunal portals, you do not acquire any property rights, including intellectual property rights, in the Tribunal portals or related data, features and functionality.
9. By registering for a Tribunal portal account, you are granted a non-transferable, revocable licence to access the Tribunal portal in order to lodge, view, receive and serve material relating to your application in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. Your licence to use the Tribunal portal does not grant you any right to use, reproduce, adapt, modify or develop derivative products from the Tribunal portal, or to use it for other purposes beyond the application in which you are involved as a party or a person acting on behalf of a party.
10. You agree:
a) not to use the Tribunal portal in any manner which infringes upon the rights of any other user or other party, including rights of publicity, intellectual property rights, data protection and other privacy rights;
b) that the material you lodge does not infringe the rights, including the intellectual property rights, of any other person and that you have the legal right to use and submit the material; and
c) to indemnify us against any loss or damage that arises from a claim that the use of anything you lodge, or which was lodged on your behalf, using a Tribunal portal infringes the intellectual property or other rights of any other user or other party.
Information privacy and access and storage of proceeding files
11. We are required to handle personal and health information in compliance with the PDP Act and the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) and the HR Act and the Health Privacy Principles (HPPs), as set out in the VCAT Privacy Policy.
12. We may collect your personal information and IP address for the purposes of administering Tribunal portals and communicating with you about your use of Tribunal portals and about your proceeding.
13. You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide to us through Tribunal portals, and for ensuring that this information is kept up to date by advising us when your personal information or your circumstances change.
14. We will periodically audit the information collected through Tribunal portals for the purposes of ensuring compliance with the IPPs, HPPs and these Terms and Conditions.
15. Material submitted or lodged on a Tribunal portal forms part of your proceeding file and will be subject to inspection by the public in accordance with section 146 of the VCAT Act, unless you apply for confidentiality and we agree to maintain confidentiality.
16. Your proceeding file is stored for at least five years after final determination of your matter in accordance with legislative requirements under the Public Records Act (1973).
17. If you are representing a party in a proceeding, we may collect the party’s personal information from you. To ensure that the party is made aware of the matters prescribed by Information Privacy Principle (IPP) 1.3 in the PDP Act and Health Privacy Principle (HPP) 1.4 in the HR Act, you agree to bring to the notice of the party you are representing:
a) these Terms and Conditions; and
b) the VCAT Privacy Policy.
18. The Tribunal is exempt from the PDP Act and the HR Act when handling personal or health information in relation to:
a) its judicial or quasi-judicial functions, or the judicial or quasi-judicial functions of its office-holders in their capacity as holders of that office; and
b) those matters which relate to the judicial or quasi-judicial functions of the Tribunal, by the registry and officers of VCAT or the staff of such a registry or other office in their capacity as members of that staff.
19. Notwithstanding the exemptions set out above, we will:
a) handle personal and health information in accordance with the VCAT Privacy Policy; and
b) comply with the PDP Act, IPPs, HR Act and HPPs where to do so does not conflict with or otherwise impair our operations or the exercise of our statutory functions.
Opting out of a Tribunal portal
20. You acknowledge that once a Tribunal portal account is created, it cannot be deleted.
21. You may opt out of using your Tribunal portal account by contacting us.
22. You agree that if you opt out of using your Tribunal portal account:
a) we will automatically update your preferred method of service from your Tribunal portal account to the contact details you last used with us;
b) to ensure that material relating to your proceeding can be validly served on you, you must take reasonable steps to notify us and all parties to your proceeding at least seven days before changing your address for service or electronic address;
c) material uploaded to the Tribunal portal before opting out will still be available for access on the Tribunal portal; and
d) you will no longer use the Tribunal portal to file and serve any material relating to your proceeding.
Changes to Terms and Conditions and functionality of Tribunal portals
23. You agree that we may change these Terms and Conditions at any time without notice. Changes will be effective from the date we upload them to this webpage. You will receive an alert when you next log into the Tribunal portal to notify you that the Terms and Conditions have changed. You will be required to read and accept the changed Terms and Conditions before you can proceed to use the Tribunal portal.
24. If you are alerted that the Terms and Conditions have been changed and you accept the changed Terms and Conditions, you:
a) agree that you have read and understood the changed Terms and Conditions; and
b) agree that you will comply with the changed Terms and Conditions.
25. If you are alerted that the Terms and Conditions have been changed and you do not accept the changed Terms and Conditions, you must immediately opt out of using the Tribunal portal.
26. You agree that we may vary the functionality or operation of the Tribunal portals at any time without notice.
Applicable law
27. These Terms and Conditions and your use of Tribunal portals are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts and tribunals of Victoria, Australia.
28. Tribunal portals may be accessed throughout Australia and overseas. We make no representation that the content of Tribunal portals complies with the laws (including intellectual property laws) of any country outside Australia. If you access this website from outside Australia, you do so at your own risk and you are responsible for ensuring compliance with all laws in the place where you are located.
Part B: Additional terms applying to Tribunal portal Business Accounts
Background
29. The following terms apply to users of Tribunal portal Business Accounts in addition to the terms above.
30. Business Accounts may be created where multiple employees of a business are required to access and manage applications to which the Business is an agent for a party. Business Accounts are established with a tiered user hierarchy, consisting of Business Administrator, Branch Administrator and Regular User tiers.
Creation of Business Accounts
31. We may create a Business Account for a Business upon receiving a written request from an Business Head containing the information prescribed in the Tribunal portal Business Account Guide, as published and updated from time to time.
32. We may decline a request to establish a Business account:
a) where the information provided by the Business Head pursuant to clause 31 does not establish that they are the Business Head;
b) where we are unable to verify that the Business Head is authorised to act on behalf of the Business; or
c) for any other reason that we consider relevant and reasonable in the circumstances.
33. Business Administrators, Branch Administrators and employees of the Business using the Business Account must confirm in writing that:
a) they have read and acknowledged these Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Notice, as updated from time to time; and
b) they agree to receive communications from us electronically.
Use of Business Accounts
34. Business Heads, Branch Heads and employees of the Business are responsible for the truthfulness, accuracy and completeness of the information that is both collected from parties and provided to us through Tribunal portals, and for ensuring that this information is kept up to date, including:
a) the prescribed information in the Tribunal portal Business Account Guide;
b) the information provided to demonstrate the Business Head’s identity and position within the Business; and
c) its authority to act as agent for a party to an application.
35. Business Heads are responsible for ensuring that the employees of the Business nominated to act as Branch Heads, with Branch Administrator access, are in fact employed in the position of Branch Head at a specified Branch.
36. The Business is responsible for managing secure access to its passwords and login details, including taking reasonable steps to avoid misuse of or unauthorised access to its Business Account. This includes:
a) ensuring that access credentials for Regular Users are deactivated when the Regular User is no longer employed at the Business or otherwise no longer requires access to the Business Account;
b) keeping records of actions taken in the Business Account, including the identity of Regular Users assigned to cases and the actions performed; and
c) assisting us in carrying out audits of Business Accounts by providing us with records upon request.
37. The Business must immediately inform us of any breach of security, unauthorised use or sign of suspicious activity in relation to its Business Account, as soon as possible after becoming aware of it.
38. Following a security breach or unauthorised use of a Business Account:
a) the Business must carry out any reasonable investigations we ask it to and report to us the outcome of your investigations; and
b) we may suspend the Business Account without notice until security has been re-established to our satisfaction.
39. We are not liable for any monetary loss you incur because of unauthorised access or breach of security in relation to your Business Account.