Employment Court Practice Directions updated on 1 September 2024
Direction 18 (Costs – Guideline scale) has been updated to include the following in cl 4:
“As a general principle, an award of costs should not exceed the costs incurred by any party claiming costs. From 1 September 2024, however, this principle does not apply to a party acting in person.”
Schedule 2 (Appropriate daily recovery rates) has been updated to include the following:
“With effect from 1 September 2024, the appropriate daily recovery rates for a party acting in person with respect to categories of proceedings set out in Schedule 1 are as provided for in Part 2 of Schedule 2 of the High Court Rules 2016, as amended from time to time.
“A ‘party acting in person’ means a party who is without an officer or member of a union, an agent, or a barrister or solicitor on the record and who represents their own personal interests; and includes such a party if they represent their own personal interests.”
A full explanation of these changes is available in Christina Inglis (Chief Judge of the Employment Court) “Changes to allow for costs awards for successful litigants-in-person in the Employment Court” (press release, 29 August 2024) at <employmentcourt.govt.nz>.
The revised Employment Court Practice Directions can be found on Westlaw New Zealand in:
Kevin Leary is a Senior Legal Editor in the New Zealand Analytical Law team at Thomson Reuters. He has more than 20 years' experience as an editor of bound books, looseleafs, precedents and their digital equivalents.