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Glossary

Understand our Language

ACC Decision

You can make a "claim" to ACC for cover for an injury and/or an entitlement (for example compensation, rehabilitation, or treatment). ACC is required by law to make up its mind about your claim and then give you notice of its decision. These are often called "decision letters". ACC will normally send you a decision letter to let you know that ACC has made up its Once this happens, if you disagree with this decision or there are any issues with this decision, these can be sorted out using the dispute resolution process.

Agreement to use ACC Advocacy Service

The Agreement to use our advocacy service is the agreement that everyone must sign before we can start helping you. It provides the right framework for us to start working together to help identify and resolve the issues in the dispute. We will spend up to three hours preparing for the consensus-based meeting and up to three hours at the meeting.

Authority to Act

This is the form we need you to sign so we can act as an advocate on your behalf. We will send this to you with the agreement to use our service if you decide that you want Advocacy Assistance.

Conciliator

A Conciliator is an independent expert in the legal system who is experienced in resolving disputes. They have been involved in thousands of disputes and they can rely on this experience and help you and ACC reach an understanding of each other's perspectives and the possible ways to resolve the issues. The Conciliator works for Talk - Meet - Resolve.

Review Application

This is the form that starts the dispute resolution process. We will complete this for you once we have reached an agreement to use our service and send this off to ACC.

Review Hearing

This is the more formal legal process where people write submissions and give evidence. If your case is not resolved by consensus then you have the right to continue to on to a case conference and a review hearing. You can choose from one of the two review providers - Fair Way Resolution (Fairway) or Independent Complaints and Review Authority (ICRA). You can discuss this at the end of the conciliation meeting if an agreement is not reached.

Talk - Meet - Resolve

Talk – Meet – Resolve is a timely, informal and accessible service that we provide to Learners and Providers. It is a different way to resolve disputes than most people in New Zealand will have experienced. It is a process where the people in the dispute are actively involved in trying to find a resolution. This is the opposite to a process where the people are trying to convince someone else (an adjudicator or a judge) that they are right and the other person is wrong. If people reach an agreement, this is written up and signed and becomes the resolution of the dispute.