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6 Int'l B.J. 41 (1975)
No Fault Insurance and the Accident Compensation Legislation in New Zealand

handle is hein.barjournals/intbrjrnl0006 and id is 43 raw text is: International Bar Journal May 1975. Printed in Great Britain 41 No Fault Insurance and the Accident Compensation Legislation in New Zealand by Maxwell H. Vautier, LL.M., Barrister and Solicitor, Auckland Chairman of Section on General Practice Committee 13 - No Fault Insurance. The scheme as now operating in New Zealand for providing compensation for persons suffering injury by accident cannot really be accurately described as an example of a scheme for No Fault insurance for accident victims. It would, as will be seen, be more accurately described as a State operated welfare scheme to provide compensation for the victims of accidents. Financed by taxation in the forms of levies imposed on various selected sections of the community, this scheme is provided as a complete substitution for all legal rights which such persons formerly had in New Zealand either at common law or under Statute to claim damages against any other person or legal entity whose negligence played a part in bringing about the injury. The scheme in New Zealand has operated since the 1 st April 1974 under a Statute called The Accident Compensation Act 1972 which in its short life has been the subject of extensive amendments. The scheme developed into its final form after a series of reports had been prepared by Government sponsored committees. A list of these is set out in an appendix. As now operating the scheme embraces every person who sustains injury by accident within the confines of New Zealand whatever the cause of the accident may be. There is no qualification as to domicile, citizenship, length of residence and, indeed, New Zealand residents who are temporarily absent from New Zealand may claim compensation under the Act in respect of accidents sustained by them outside New Zealand. So also may members of the Armed Forces and New Zealand seamen and airmen subject to the conditions laid down in the Statute. All persons lose the right to sue for damages at common law or under Statutes such as the Deaths by Accident Compensation Act 1952 or the Carriage by Air Act 1967. If, however, as in the case of international air travel a resident of New Zealand is entitled to compensation under the Accident Compensation Act and also to maintain a claim for damages or compensation outside New Zealand, the Commission which administers the legislation is empowered to require the moneys recoverable outside New Zealand to be brought into account in one or other of the ways specified in the legislation. Some of the features of an actual insurance scheme have, it is true, come forward into the legislation. For example, by reason of the different sources from which the funds to provide the compensation are raised by means of levies imposed upon different sections of the community, there is provision for various separate funds to be established and maintained. These have now been extended to no less than five separate funds called The Earners Compensation Fund, The Motor Vehicle Compensation Fund, The Accident Compensation Commission's General Fund,

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