Jacoby and Devall (Child support)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the matter of child support between Jacoby and Devall. The dispute concerned the date of effect of a decision made by the Child Support Registrar regarding an objection lodged by Devall. Devall sought to have the objection decision take effect from an earlier date than that determined by the Registrar, arguing that special circumstances prevented the objection from being lodged within the prescribed time.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether there were "special circumstances" that would justify deeming Devall's objection to have been lodged at an earlier date. This required the Tribunal to assess the evidence presented by Devall to determine if it met the threshold for special circumstances as contemplated by the relevant legislation.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision under review, finding that no special circumstances existed that would warrant altering the date of effect of the objection decision. The reasoning applied was that the circumstances described by Devall did not meet the legal standard for special circumstances, which typically requires an exceptional or unusual situation that genuinely prevented the timely lodgement of the objection. The Tribunal concluded that Devall had not demonstrated such circumstances.