OFFICE OF CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION

OFFICE OF CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA Chief Assessor's Report 2011/2012

CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION The Honourable Michael Mischin, MLC Attorney General of Western Australia 10 th Floor, Dumas House 2 Havelock St WEST PERTH WA 6005 Dear Attorney General STATUTORY REPORT - CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION Pursuant to section 62 of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 2003 I submit my report on the operation of the Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation for the year ending 30 June 2012. Yours faithfully H L Porter CHIEF ASSESSOR OF CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION 25 September 2012 Page 2

CONTENTS OVERVIEW...4 STATISTICAL PROFILE...4 NEW APPLICATIONS.5 CLAIMS FINALISED 5 NATURE OF OFFENCES..6 GENDER OF RECIPIENTS...6 MONETARY RANGE OF AWARDS.7 INTERIM PAYMENTS.....7 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY VICTIMS.8 LEGAL REPRESENTATION..8 REASONS FOR REFUSALS.9 FUTURE PAYMENTS PROVISION 10 APPEALS 11 REDUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTION...11 PERFORMANCE MEASURES 11 ASSESSMENT TIME. 11 OUTSTANDING APPLICATIONS... 12 PROVISION OF REASONS. 13 NEW DEVELOPEMENTS. 13 RECOVERY OF DEBT.. 14 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.... 14 Page 3

OVERVIEW The Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation is established pursuant to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 2003 (the Act) to compensate victims for injuries suffered as a consequence of an offence. Compensation can be awarded for bodily harm, mental and nervous shock, or pregnancy, resulting from an offence. Compensation is available for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of income and treatment expenses. The maximum amount payable is $75,000 for an offence committed in Western Australia after 1 January 2004 and lesser amounts for offences prior to that. STAFF The team at the Office consists of 3 full time assessors and 17.2 full time equivalent administrative employees, including staff working on recovery from convicted offenders (the Recoveries Office). KEY DATA During 2011/2012, 2031 new applications for compensation were received, an increase of 6.5%. 1872 applications were accepted for processing, an increase of 12.2%. 1809 applications were finalised, an increase of 0.8%. 1624 awards were made totalling $32,463,313. The average award was $19,990. 126 applications were refused. 19 hearings were held into applications for compensation. The caseload increased by 72 to 885 applications on hand, an increase of 8.8%. $1,700,486 of debt owed to the State was recovered, an increase of 26%. STATISTICAL PROFILE 2008/09 2009/10 New applications received 1563 1683 1907 2031 Accepted applications 1491 1628 1669 1872 Rejected applications 362 362 536 646 Resubmitted applications 290 307 298 487 Awards granted 1165 1253 1589 1624 Applications refused 96 89 102 126 Applications closed or discontinued 66 89 103 59 Applications outstanding at 30 June 750 943 813 885 Page 4

NEW APPLICATIONS RECEIVED During new applications totalling 2031 were received. On 646 occasions applications were returned to the applicant for further work. Of the applications returned to the applicant, 487 were resubmitted on at least one occasion. APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AND FINALISED 2008/09 to 1872 2031 Year 2009/10 1431 1683 1794 1907 2008/09 1327 1563 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 Number of applications New Applications Received Applications Finalised CLAIMS FINALISED CLAIMS FINALISED 2008/09 to 59 126 1624 103 102 1589 Year 2009/10 89 89 1253 2008/09 66 96 1165 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 Number of applications Granted Refused Closed/Discontinued Page 5

NATURE OF OFFENCES INVOLVED The chart below illustrates the types of offences for which awards were made between and. OFFENCES FOR WHICH AWARDS WERE MADE to Motor vehicle 5 0 Deprivation of Liberty 9 10 Dog attack 7 11 Stalking/Threatening 15 22 Type of offence Homicide Other Unlaw ful Wounding 35 37 102 91 215 193 Grievous Bodily Harm 98 99 Robbery/Burglary Sexual Assault 116 157 202 185 Assault 820 784 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 Number of awards NUMBER OF MALES & FEMALES TO WHOM AWARDS WERE MADE The following chart shows the gender of persons to whom awards were made and the number of adults and children involved. Overall, 52% of recipients were male and 48% female. GENDER OF RECIPIENTS Number of awards made (total 1624) Female Child, 194, 12% Male Child, 126, 8% Male Adult, 716, 44% Female Adult, 588, 36% Page 6

RANGE OF FINALISED APPLICATIONS The chart below illustrates the monetary range of applications finalised during and. RANGE OF MONETARY AWARDS and over $75 000 87 88 $50 001 - $75 000 69 83 Amount of awards ($) $40 001 - $50 000 $30 001 - $40 000 $20 001 - $30 000 $10 001 - $20 000 $5 001 - $10 000 69 73 128 118 214 243 267 302 333 360 $2 500 - $5 000 185 226 under $2 500 175 193 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Number of aw ards made (1624) INTERIM PAYMENTS An Assessor may authorise an interim or up front payment before the finalisation of a claim to a maximum of $2,250 for expenses incurred as a consequence of a death or injury. The table below shows the number of applicants to whom interim payments have been made. INTERIM PAYMENTS MADE 2007/08 to 180 160 Number of payments 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 126 163 158 99 72 0 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 Year Page 7

PRIMARY & SECONDARY VICTIMS PRIMARY & SECONDARY VICTIMS 2008/09 to Primary 1639 Secondary 170 Year 2009/10 Primary 1654 Primary 1343 Secondary 140 Secondary 88 2008/09 Primary 1239 Secondary 88 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% REPRESENTATION The last 12 months has seen a slight increase in the proportion of applicants having legal representation. REPRESENTATION 2008/09 to Self Represented Represented by Law yer Year 2009/10 Self Represented Self Represented Represented by Law yer Represented by Law yer 2008/09 Self Represented Represented by Law yer 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Page 8

REFUSALS During the year, awards were refused on 126 applications for reasons detailed below: Section of Act No of Refusals Reason for Refusal 9 10 11 1 Time expired, extension of time refused Entitlement ceases on death of victim 12 13 Assessor not satisfied applicant injured in the commission of a proved offence 13 16 Alleged offender acquitted 17 29 35 28 0 18 Assessor not satisfied applicant injured in the commission of an alleged offence Assessor s general discretion Limitation of compensation for mental and nervous shock 36 1 No award if compensation likely to benefit offender 37 4 Injury caused by a motor vehicle 38 21 Applicant did not assist investigation, apprehension or prosecution of offender 39 40 8 2 Victim engaged in criminal conduct * Compensation previously awarded or refused 41 3 Behaviour etc. of victim to be considered * 3 were decided before the decision on 9 February 2012 in Attorney General for Western Australia v Her Honour Judge Schoombee [2012] WASCA 29, see discussion on page 13. Page 9

FUTURE PAYMENTS PROVISION As part of an award, an Assessor may make provision for future treatment costs which can be claimed by the applicant when relevant costs are incurred. RANGE OF FUTURE PAYMENTS PROVISION $30000 + 2 Future payment provision ($) $20 001 - $30 000 $10 001 - $20 000 $5 001 - $10 000 $1 000 - $5 000 6 20 43 208 Less than $1 000 152 0 50 100 150 200 250 Number of awards with a future payment provision (total 431) Provision was made in for future payments of $1,350,671, increasing the total provision made under the Act since 1 July 2004 to $7,422,170. Of this provision, $308,720 was paid out in bringing the total paid since 1 July 2004 to $1,031,833. Payment of expenses incurred after the date of the compensation award can only be made for expenses incurred up to 10 years after the date of the award or the date the applicant reached 18 years of age, whichever is the later. FUTURE PAYMENT PROVISIONS 2007/08 to 431 402 Year 2009/10 305 2008/09 246 2007/08 234 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 Number of awards with future payment provision Page 10

APPEALS During the year 24 appeals were lodged with the District Court following the determination of a compensation application. 60 appeals were finalised and of these 16 were successful, 16 were unsuccessful, 3 were abandoned and 25 were discontinued. In the previous financial year, 51 appeals were lodged and 10 were successful. REDUCTIONS TO AWARDS FOR CONTRIBUTION Section 41 of the Act requires that regard be had to any behaviour, condition, attitude, or disposition of the victim that contributed, directly or indirectly, to the victim s injury or death, and allows the award to be refused or the amount of an award to be reduced in proportion to the contribution found to have occurred. Reductions for contributory behaviour, ranging from 10% to 50%, were made in 19 awards during. Of these, 12 awards were reduced by 20% or less and 7 awards were reduced by over 20%. PERFORMANCE MEASURES Lodgements accepted New applications Sep 11 Qtr Dec 11 Qtr Mar 12 Qtr Jun 12 Qtr Annual Finalisations 39 weeks & less 39 to 52 weeks More than 52 weeks Listings matters heard Cases on hand Less than 39 weeks 39 to 52 weeks More than 52 weeks Applications New & Resub Applications Rejected Applications Resubmitted 479 442 426 525 1872 536 464 540 491 2031 504 387 473 445 1809 416 305 401 346 1468 53 37 20 40 150 35 45 52 59 191 6 8 4 1 19 791 856 807 885 885 619 690 650 742 742 51 50 44 57 57 121 116 113 86 86 641 604 671 602 2518 162 162 245 77 646 105 140 131 111 487 ASSESSMENT TIME The average time taken to assess applications during was 4.4 months, a decrease in the assessment time from the average of 5.0 months in. Page 11

Calculation of the assessment delay is based on the group of applications finalised in less than 12 months from receipt, based upon data which reveals that in cases in which the application takes more than 12 months to finalise, the delay is caused by external factors such as the need to complete treatment, delay in finalisation of the prosecution, and the need for the applicant to first exhaust all other avenues for compensation. The average assessment delay over all applications finalised in the period was 6.1 months. ASSESSMENT TIME 2007/08 TO Average time taken to assess applications (months) 4.5 4.3 4.2 5.0 4.4 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 OUTSTANDING APPLICATIONS At 30 June 2012, 885 applications were on hand, an increase of 72, or 8.9%, over the preceding 12 months. The breakdown of the age of the cases on hand in the table below shows that the number of files which have been in the Office for more than 12 months has decreased by 27%. The proportion of the caseload represented by applications which have been in the Office under 9 months has increased to 84%. The proportion of cases aged between 9 and 12 months has increased and the proportion aged over 12 months has decreased. The number of files aged less than 9 months increased by 90 to 742 while the number of files aged over 9 months decreased to 143. These figures should be viewed in the context of an overall increase of 124 in the number of new applications during compared to the previous year. APPLICATIONS ON HAND - 30 JUNE (885) 742 57 86 Year (Total on hand) (813) 2009/10 (943) 652 758 43 51 118 134 2008/09 (750) 559 77 114 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Percentage of cases Under 9 months 9 to 12 months Over 12 months Page 12

PROVISION OF REASONS An assessor is required to give written reasons for the making of an award when requested to do so and in all cases where the making of an award is refused. Where an assessor forms the view that by reason of the operation of the legislation an applicant is ineligible for compensation, the applicant may be advised in writing by letter of the reasons for that outcome, rather than in formal written reasons. Formal reasons for decision have been provided in 29 cases and in total, reasons have been provided in 144 cases, an increase of 20 on the previous year. The chart below sets out the breakdown of these reasons. REASONS PROVIDED 2007/08 TO (144) 28 1 115 Year (total reasons) (124) 2009/10 (136) 2008/09 (151) 29 51 64 1 6 14 94 79 73 2007/08 (129) 60 6 63 Formal reasons - aw ard Formal reasons - refusal Informal refusal letter NEW DEVELOPMENTS Section 39 of the Act provides that an assessor may not award compensation to a person who was injured when he or she was committing a separate offence. On 9 February 2012 the Supreme Court, in Attorney General for Western Australia v Her Honour Judge Schoombee [2012] WASCA 29, clarified the interpretation of section 39 of the Act. The decision made it clear that the section required only a temporal and not a causal connection between the offence causing injury to the applicant and the separate offence committed by the applicant. Awards were made to 9 applicants for injury suffered as a consequence of the offence of child neglect. In each case the award was made pursuant to section 17 of the Act for an alleged offence, no prosecution of the alleged offender having occurred. A total of $188,167.00 was awarded, and the average amount of these awards was therefore $20,907.00. Following the decision in Re Her Honour Judge Schoombee; Ex Parte Attorney General For Western Australia [2011] WASCA 129 in June 2011, 34 applications were lodged for injury suffered as a consequence of the driving or other use of a motor vehicle, and 5 awards have been made. Page 13

RECOVERY OF DEBT A Compensation Reimbursement Order to recover the amount of an award from a convicted offender may be sought on the instructions of the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of the Attorney General. REIMBURSEMENT ORDERS 2008/09 TO 778 861 732 781 Year 2009/10 613 680 2008/09 627 699 Number Applications for Reimbursement Orders Reimbursement Orders made In, $1,700,486 of debt owed to the State was recovered compared to the previous year s total of $1,346,118 which represents a 26% increase. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As is always the case, the statistics measuring the performance of the Office in 2011-12 reveal the significant efforts of all involved in its operation. The Office has received valuable assistance from those providing administrative services in the Department of the Attorney General, and I thank them all for their efforts; however the real achievement is of those whose job it is to process the very many applications which have been received from their arrival in the Office through to the efforts made to recover money paid by the State to victims of crime. All staff should be congratulated for the achievements demonstrated by these figures, which reveal that the Office has continued to provide timely and efficient services in the face of an ever increasing workload. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of the staff of the Office for his or her contribution. H L Porter CHIEF ASSESSOR OF CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION 25 September 2012 Page 14