Outstanding fees and court
What if there are outstanding fees?
In cases where there are outstanding fees, we will make the complainant aware that you have the legal right to legal action. We will suggest that they pay the fee, or any uncontested part of it, on a “without prejudice” basis.
If you are intending or are taking legal action to recover fees under a contract, we may contact you to ask if you are prepared to place this action on hold until we have reviewed the complaint.
Should you agree the case will be allocated for review on receipt of your company file.
If, however, you are not prepared to do this and a court date is set within three months, we will suspend our review pending the court’s decision. The Ombudsman would then only be able to consider aspects of the complaint not determined by the court.
Alternatively, if we consider that we have enough time to complete our process before the hearing is due, we may escalate the case for review.
What if a court date has been set?
If a court date has been set we may contact you to ask if you are prepared to place the action on hold until we have reviewed the complaint.
If you are not prepared to do this and a court date is set within three months, we will suspend our review pending the court’s decision. We would then only consider aspects of the complaint not determined by the court.
Alternatively, if we consider that we have enough time to complete our process before the hearing is due, we may escalate the case for review.
Can the Ombudsman still review the complaint if it has been to court?
In accordance with the Ombudsman’s Terms of Reference, we are not permitted to consider aspects of a complaint that a court has already ruled on.
In view of the above, we would need to be provided with a copy of the judgement so that we can determine whether we are able to consider the complaint/s. In making this decision we will also take into consideration what was submitted to the court as evidence.