| Summary |
COSTS - Partially successful personal grievance, arrears claim and penalty - 1ï¾½ days investigation meeting - Applicant sought costs of at least $9,288, being 66 percent of actual costs - Respondent argued any costs should be limited to $1,600 in line with Calderbank offer made following mediation - Calderbank offer irrelevant as fell short of mark - Award of costs only to cover work for investigation meeting, not mediation - Applicant's application for amendment to legal aid grant undecided - Authority inferred grant for purposes of mediation and extension requested to cover Authority proceedings - Grant would probably limit amount counsel able to charge - Given difficulties, best course was to start with assessment of time reasonably required for applicant's participation in investigation process - Authority considered steps required by counsel and determined 32 hours professional time required - At reasonable rate of $200 per hour, reasonable fees would be $6,000 - Authority mindful modest award would see largely successful applicant out of pocket - However, not determining factor - Proper point of reference was level of costs reasonably incurred - No evidence about respondent's ability to meet award of costs despite claim was start-up enterprise operating monthly deficit - Respondent introduced substantial amount of evidence that on its view of events must have been irrelevant - Resulted in matter taking more than single day and caused extra costs |