Victorian Current Acts Victorian Current Acts(1) If an initial award of damages has been made to a worker for a serious silica-related condition, a court must have regard to the legal costs incurred in respect of the action for those damages (the initial action ) when assessing the amount to be awarded as legal costs in a subsequent action for damages by that worker for another serious silica-related condition.
(2) The purpose of subsection (1) is to ensure that legal costs awarded in a subsequent action are not in respect of work undertaken for the purposes of the initial action.
(3) In considering any possible duplication of legal costs, the court must have regard to the following factors—
(a) any work undertaken in the initial action—
(i) to identify the party or parties to be named as defendants; and
(ii) to identify the circumstances of the worker's exposure to silica; and
(iii) in relation to the negligence or breach of duty of the party or parties to be named as defendants; and
(iv) as to the relationship and causal nexus between the worker's condition and the exposure to silica;
(b) any other factors that the court considers appropriate.
S. 356F inserted by No. 10/2022 s. 77.