16Jurisdiction

##### 16. Jurisdiction action or proceedings means action or proceedings making a claim for damages, in respect of the death of or bodily injury to a person directly caused by, or by the driving of, a motor vehicle, against the owner or driver of the vehicle or against the Commission; court means Supreme Court, District Court, or Magistrates Court, as the case may be; pending action or proceedings means action or proceedings commenced in the Tribunal and pending or in progress therein immediately before the proclaimed date, and includes action or proceedings in respect of which the Tribunal had, at that time, power to review periodical payments, or to order that periodical payments be redeemed by a lump sum; proclaimed date means the date on which the *Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act Amendment Act 1972* comes into operation; and the Tribunal means the Third Party Claims Tribunal abolished by subsection (2). (2) On the proclaimed date the Third Party Claims Tribunal, established under this Act before that date, is abolished. (3) On and after the proclaimed date a court may, subject to the extent of its jurisdiction and to subsection (5), hear and determine any action or proceedings. (4) On the hearing and determination of any action or proceedings a court shall, without in any way limiting its usual powers in relation thereto, have the following further powers — (a) to award by way of general damages either a lump sum or periodical payments or a lump sum and periodical payments, such periodical payments to be for such period and upon such terms as the court determines; and (b) at any time either of its own motion or on the application of any party to the action or proceedings — (i) to review any periodical payment and either continue, vary, reduce, increase, suspend, or determine it, or on the review to order payment to the claimant of a further lump sum; or (ii) to order that any such periodical payments be redeemed by payment of a lump sum. (5) Any pending action or proceedings shall, notwithstanding the amount of damages claimed, be continued in the District Court in accordance with such practice and procedure of the Tribunal, or the District Court, or a mixture of both, as the District Court, generally or for the particular case, directs. (6) In relation to any pending action or proceedings, the District Court may, with such modifications as are necessary or desirable, exercise all or any of the powers referred to in subsection (4). (7) After the proclaimed date, the books and records of the Tribunal shall be kept by the Registrar of the District Court and that Registrar may certify for all purposes any such book or record, or any copy thereof or extract therefrom, as if he were the Registrar of the Tribunal. [Section 16 inserted: No. 42 of 1972 s. 6; amended: No. 51 of 1986 s. 46(2); No. 107 of 1987 s. 14; No. 59 of 2004 s. 141.]