Judge rejects scale costs and orders the Crown to foot the entire $349,107.98 bill
A family caregiver will have her full $349,107.98 legal bill met by the Crown, Chief Judge Christina Inglis ruled on 13 July 2026.
The dispute began in 2019, when the caregiver claimed she was an employee of the Ministry of Health while caring for her severely disabled adult son at home. The Employment Court agreed in 2021, the Court of Appeal disagreed, and the Supreme Court ultimately confirmed she was an employee and sent the case back to the Employment Court.
Three questions were left for Chief Judge Inglis: whether the Crown should pay indemnity costs, whether the caregiver's son should stay in the case as a second defendant, and whether her personal grievance claim could proceed.
Both sides accepted the caregiver was entitled to costs at the highest scale category. Scale costs would have come to $122,356.59. Her actual costs were $349,107.98. She argued the Crown's conduct, the complexity of the litigation and its public interest justified a full award.
The judge declined to find the Crown's conduct exceptionally bad, the usual trigger for indemnity costs. But she held that the complexity of the case and its public interest justified the Crown meeting the caregiver's costs in full, applying the Court's equity and good conscience jurisdiction. The judge noted the proceeding was a test case affecting thousands of caregivers and disabled people, and that the Crown had gained clarity about...
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