Amendment to UCPR r14.3

08/03/2013

The Uniform Rules Committee has approved an amendment to Rule 14.13. The amendment took effect today, Friday 8 March 2013.

The first objective of the amendment is to allow statements of claim in relation to property damage to a motor vehicle in the Local Court, to claim an amount for the costs of hiring a replacement vehicle, in the same way as the costs of repairs and towing of motor vehicles can currently be claimed. This will allow applications for default judgments in relation to statements of claim that included a claim for hiring a replacement car at a specifc amount to be entered without requiring that such damages be assessed.

The second objective of the amendment is to exclude these provisions (that allow specific amounts to be claimed for repair, the value of the car less salvage value, towing and replacement hire costs) in relation to proceedings for motor vehicle property damage in the District Court. If a plaintiff wants to claim damages under these heads of damage in the District Court then such damages cannot be claimed at a specifc amount and will now need to be assessed.

8 March 2013