myVCAT Terms and Conditions of Use

myVCAT is an online electronic platform, administered by Court Services Victoria (CSV) in support of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).  myVCAT enables users to lodge, view, receive and serve applications and other material in relation to proceedings before VCAT.

General conditions

1. If you register for a myVCAT account or access and use myVCAT, you agree: 

  1. that you have read and understood these terms and conditions (T&Cs);
  2. that you will comply with the T&Cs; and
  3. to receive material through myVCAT related to any VCAT proceeding in which the party so registered is or becomes a party.

2. If you allow someone else to access or use your myVCAT account, they are taken to do so as your agent and to agree to comply with the T&Cs.

3. In these T&Cs: 

  1. “you” and “your” means the person accessing and using myVCAT, including anyone accessing and using myVCAT on a party’s behalf;
  2. “we” or “us” means CSV and VCAT and includes our employees, agents, assigns and successors in law;
  3. “material” means material uploaded to myVCAT in relation to your VCAT proceeding and includes (but is not limited to) information, documents and images;
  4. “party” means a party to a proceeding in VCAT; and
  5. “T&Cs” means these T&Cs as changed from time to time.

 

Content of myVCAT

4. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for your use of myVCAT or the use of myVCAT by other users, including any material lodged by you or any other party.

 

Accessing myVCAT

5. You agree that you are responsible for: 

  1. maintaining the security of your myVCAT account (such as maintaining the confidentiality of your password and log in details) and for all activities that occur within your account;
  2. promptly advising us if any of the information relating to your myVCAT account changes, such as your contact information;
  3. monitoring your myVCAT account in order to view any material that has been uploaded by us or another party;
  4. complying with any requirements as set out in orders or notices issued by VCAT;
  5. taking all reasonable steps to ensure that material you upload to or download from myVCAT will not corrupt or damage your property, VCAT’s property, or the property of any other user or party; and
  6. promptly reporting any suspicious or unauthorized activity in relation to your account to VCAT by email to civil@courts.vic.gov.au.

 

Using myVCAT

6. You agree that: 

  1. you will only use myVCAT for its intended purpose including to lodge, view and serve applications or other material that relates to your proceeding in VCAT and that you will not lodge any threatening or offensive material on myVCAT;
  2. VCAT will, in its absolute discretion, determine whether you have used myVCAT in breach of these T&Cs or any applicable laws and may and take such action as it considers appropriate, including removing any material that it considers breaches these T&Cs or any applicable laws and suspending or cancelling your myVCAT account; and
  3. you indemnify us against any loss or damage that arises as a result of your use of myVCAT in breach of these T&Cs or any applicable laws.

7. You agree to comply with all applicable laws when using myVCAT including ensuring that the information you lodge, or otherwise provide, via myVCAT complies with these T&Cs and all applicable laws.

8. You acknowledge that some material on myVCAT may be subject to court or tribunal orders or laws limiting or prohibiting publication, and you agree that those orders and laws continue to apply to that material even though it appears on myVCAT.
 

Intellectual property

9. myVCAT and all its related data, features and functionality are protected by relevant copyright laws. You acknowledge and agree that by accessing and using myVCAT you do not acquire any property rights, including intellectual property rights, in myVCAT or its related data, features and functionality.

10. You are granted a non-transferable, revocable license to access myVCAT in order to lodge, view, receive and serve material relating to your VCAT proceeding in accordance with these T&Cs. Your licence to use myVCAT does not grant you any right to use, reproduce, adapt, modify or develop derivative products from myVCAT or to use it for other purposes beyond the VCAT proceeding in which you are involved as a party or a person acting on behalf of a party.

11. You agree: 

  1. not to use myVCAT in any manner which infringes upon the rights of any other user or other party, including rights of publicity, intellectual property rights, data protection and other privacy rights;
  2. that the material you lodge does not infringe the rights, including the intellectual property rights, of any other person and that you have the legal right to use and submit the material; and
  3. to indemnify us against any loss or damage that arises from a claim that the use of anything you lodge, or lodged on your behalf, using myVCAT infringes the intellectual property or other rights of any other user or other party.

 

Information privacy and access and storage of proceeding files

12. You agree that: 

  1. we may collect your personal information (such as your name and contact information) and IP address for the purposes of administering myVCAT and communicating with you about your use of myVCAT and about your proceeding before VCAT;
  2. we manage your personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, the Health Records Act 2001 and VCAT’s privacy statement;
  3. material submitted or lodged on myVCAT forms part of your proceeding file and will be subject to inspection by the public in accordance with section 146 of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (Vic); and
  4. your proceeding file is stored for at least 5 years after final determination of your matter in accordance with legislative requirements under the Public Records Act (1973) (Vic).

 

Opting out of myVCAT

13. You acknowledge that once a myVCAT account is created, it cannot be deleted.

14. You may opt out of using your myVCAT account by using the self-service option on your myVCAT account or by contacting VCAT’s Service Delivery Group by email to civil@courts.vic.gov.au.

15. You agree that if you opt out of myVCAT: 

  1. your communication preference for each proceeding in which you are a party (including your preferred method of service) will be updated to your most recent contact method as specified in VCAT’s records for each such proceeding (respectively);
  2. you must, within 7 days, take reasonable steps to notify all parties to your proceeding and VCAT of your new contact details so that material relating to each proceeding can be validly served on you;
  3. material uploaded before opting out of myVCAT will still be available for access on myVCAT;
  4. you will no longer use myVCAT to file and serve any material relating to your matter in VCAT.

 

Changes to T&Cs and functionality of myVCAT

16. You agree that we may change these T&Cs at any time without notice. Changes will be effective from the date we upload them to myVCAT. You will receive an alert when you next log into myVCAT to notify you that the T&Cs have changed. You will be required to read and accept the changed T&Cs before you can proceed to use myVCAT.

17. If you are alerted that the T&Cs have been changed and you accept the changed T&Cs, you: 

  1. agree that you have read and understood the changed T&Cs; and
  2. agree that you will comply with the changed T&Cs.

 18. If you are alerted that the T&Cs have been changed and you do not accept the changed T&Cs, you must immediately opt out of myVCAT.

19. You agree that we may vary the functionality or operation of myVCAT at any time without notice.

 

Disclaimer and release

20. You acknowledge and agree that to the maximum extent permitted by law: 

  1. we give no assurance that myVCAT will be free from viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference or contamination which may damage or interfere with any device used to access myVCAT;
  2. we are not responsible for information not being received because personal information in myVCAT is incorrect or out of date or because your device is restricted;
  3. we are not liable to you for any loss or damage suffered (directly or indirectly) by you resulting from or in connection with your use of myVCAT and you release us from any such loss or damage.

 

Applicable law

21. These T&Cs and your use of myVCAT are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts and tribunals of Victoria, Australia.