After receiving your complaint, a Case Officer will be allocated to assess it. Sometimes the Case Officer may need to talk to you or the agency to properly understand and assess your complaint. The matters that may be considered during assessment include:
- Whether your complaint is within the Ombudsman's jurisdiction;
- Whether you have already attempted to resolve your concerns directly with the department, or you have good reasons for not having done so;
- Whether your complaint is about a matter which you became aware of within the past 12 months. Normally the Ombudsman will not accept a complaint about matters which occurred more than 12 months ago unless there are special circumstances or the matter is in the public interest;
- Whether your complaint would be more appropriately dealt with by a different body (eg. Anti-Discrimination Commission, Information Commissioner)