When deliberating a claim for relief money or for subrogation of a damages claim, what may the district deliberation committee look into and who may it turn to for the facts it needs?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file, we read the application for relief money together with the papers showing that the claim also concerns subrogation of a damages claim, any request the committee sent the applicant for a medical diagnosis or an interview, and the replies that administrative agencies, public institutions or other organisations sent back to the committee's inquiry.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the committee's powers as tied to its deliberation: where necessary for deliberating the payment of relief money and the subrogation of a damages claim under the cited provision of the Act on the Protection of Crime Victims, the district deliberation committee may investigate the applicant or other interested persons, may have a medical diagnosis obtained, and may inquire of administrative agencies, public institutions or other organisations and have them report what is needed.
Another reading notes the discretion carried by the words 'where necessary' and 'may': the provision sets no duty to investigate and no minimum scope for the inquiry, and the dismissal power in the later paragraph is written only for the applicant who refuses without justifiable reason, leaving open what the committee may do when an agency or another interested person declines to report.
Your judgment
If the committee closed the file without a diagnosis and an agency had not replied, what in the papers would show whether the deliberation rested on facts the provision contemplates?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to set a duty or a minimum scope for the committee's inquiry, or if a decision explains what follows when an agency rather than the applicant fails to answer.