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Leave to Appeal Applications from a Decision of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

This document serves as a general procedural guide only. More specific legal information is available from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 and Supreme Court (Miscellaneous Proceedings) Rules 2005.

Deciding to challenge a decision of VCAT

There is no automatic right of appeal against a decision/order of VCAT.

The first step is to apply for permission of the court to commence an appeal. This application is described as seeking Leave to Appeal (see Section 148 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998). Order 4 of Chapter II Supreme Court (Miscellaneous Civil Proceedings) Rules 1998 sets out the steps required in the process of seeking Leave to Appeal from a Tribunal.

You should seek legal advice if considering this course of action, due to the complexity of leave to appeal applications.

Leave to appeal applications must identify that an error in law has occurred. Leave to appeal applications cannot be based simply on errors of fact. Legal advice is necessary to determine if there are grounds for commencing proceedings and to prepare documents in a form acceptable to the court .

Seeking leave to appeal within time and out of time

Applications for leave to appeal from a decision of VCAT must be commenced no more than 28 days from the date of the order of VCAT. If, after the tribunal has given oral reasons, a party may then request written reasons to be given (refer Section 117 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998). The date that the written reasons are given is then the day upon which the order has been made for the purposes of counting the 28 days for filing an application for leave to appeal the VCAT decision.

If commencing an application for leave to appeal beyond the 28 days stated in the legislation - that is, seeking leave to appeal out of time - you must state in the court documents for filing that the application is leave to appeal a decision of VCAT out of time. In effect in that situation you are seeking both leave to appeal out of time and leave to appeal the decision/order of the tribunal.

Where leave to appeal VCAT applications are made

Leave to appeal applications concerning a decision of the President of VCAT or a Vice President of VCAT are filed with the Court of Appeal at:

Ground Floor
450 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne

Leave to appeal applications concerning a decision of a Deputy President or other Tribunal member are filed with the Supreme Court Trial Division at:

Level 2
436 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne