Click here to begin your search  for all Commissioner and Magistrate decisions.

The establishment of the Dispute Resolution Directorate in November 2005 included a Commissioner in its constitution. The Commissioner deals with matters on:

• a novel or complex question of law referred by an arbitrator;
• a question of law referred by a party to the proceeding before an arbitrator; and
• appeals against a decision of an arbitrator.

Until December 2006, the Compensation Magistrate's Court dealt with questions of law under the previous dispute resolution system arising from:

• matters referred to it by a review officer;
• appeals against a decision of a review officer.

The Commissioner and Compensation Magistrate may both hand down written reasons for the decision.

This section of the site allows you to search a database of decisions made by the Commissioner (from November 2005) and the Compensation Magistrate (between 1994 and 2006). These decisions are referenced by the Decision Number, Appellant, Respondent and Commissioner or Magistrate. Each decision is provided in PDF format.

You may also search the database for selected decisions by a number of other search mechanisms including:

• keywords; or
• sections of the act; or
• catch phrases.

Alternatively, you can search the documents themselves for any text which appears as part of the decision. It should be noted a right of appeal exists to the Supreme Court from decisions of both the Commissioner and Compensation Magistrate. If a Supreme Court appeal is or was lodged against a decision, it will be flagged in the summary information on the search results as soon as the Commissioner or Compensation Magistrate's Court receives notice of the appeal.

Information relating to the outcome of an appeal against a decision by the Commissioner or Compensation Magistrate is available from the Supreme Court only.