(1A) This section does
not apply to a complaint alleging 1 or more of the matters set out in
section 25(1)(i), (j) or (k).
(1) The Director must
stop dealing with an issue that arises out of a complaint if the Director
—
(a)
becomes aware that the provider or user has begun legal proceedings which
relate to that issue; or
(aa)
becomes aware that the issue has been determined by a registration board; or
(b)
becomes aware that proceedings relating to that specific issue have been
initiated before the State Administrative Tribunal or an industrial tribunal;
or
(c)
considers that the issue should properly be dealt with by a court or the State
Administrative Tribunal,
and must, within 14
days, give written notice of the fact that he or she has stopped to the user
and the provider and, where the provider is a registered provider, to the
provider’s registration board and the State Administrative Tribunal.
(2) Subsection (1)(c)
does not apply to the extent that the Director considers that he or she should
investigate any matter for the purpose of facilitating the Director’s
participation in any further proceeding relating to the matter.
(3) If the Director
has stopped dealing with an issue and later becomes aware that the user or the
provider has withdrawn or abandoned legal proceedings which relate to that
issue, the Director may, with the consent of the user or the person who
complained to the Director, reopen proceedings under this Act.
(4) Despite the fact
that legal proceedings relating to an issue in a complaint have been begun as
mentioned in subsection (1)(a), the Director may refer that complaint for
conciliation if —
(a) the
person who made the complaint; and
(b) the
provider,
consent, but the
conciliation process is not to continue once the Director becomes aware that
the actual hearing of the case has begun.
[Section 52 amended: No. 55 of 2004 s. 496; No. 35
of 2022 s. 31.]
[ 53-55. Deleted: No. 35 of 2010 s. 89.]