Link to Legislation

Key Takeaways

Amendments to the Personal Injury Commission Rules 2021 (the Rules) commenced operation on 29 April 2022.

The amendments were implemented to address the following areas:

• Lodgment of documents and surveillance recordings.
• Procedures for determining an extension of time and the acceptable applications that may be made under the Act.
• Minor and miscellaneous updates.

Key Changes

Surveillance records

Rule 109 allows for the procedure for lodgment and admission of surveillance recordings to go to a Medical Assessor (MA).

The rules now require the parties to do the following:

• Parties must lodge the recording with the Application or Reply, and serve the recording on the other parties.
• If the recording is not lodged with the Application or Reply, it must be lodged not later than 14 days before the medical assessment and with leave from the Commission.
• The material from the surveillance recording is limited to what is relevant to the issues in the proceedings.
• The recording must be accompanied with a description of the surveillance recording.
• Surveillance recordings will go to a MA where exceptional circumstances exist as determined by the Commission or President.

Time to appeal Medical Assessment Certificates

A new rule, 113A, was inserted to address the procedure for an application to extend time in certain circumstances including under s352 of Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998. This is the avenue for an appeal against a decision of the Commission constituted by a non-presidential member, including a MA.

Under the new rule, parties seeking to appeal a decision of a non-presidential member outside the prescribed timeframe can do so. For MAC appeals, the prescribed timeframe is 28 days. The party wishing to appeal the decision must make an additional application (an extension application) for an order determining a longer period within which they may make the relevant application (such as an appeal against a MAC).

The extension application must be made at the same time as the relevant application to which it relates. This means that if a party wishes to appeal a MAC outside of time, the extension application must therefore be filed with the Appeal against the decision of a MA.
The extension application will be referred to the President or Presidential Member. The decision maker will consider whether there are ‘exceptional circumstances that to lose the right to make the relevant application would work demonstrable and substantial injustice’.

Implications

The new rules have clarified the procedure around lodging surveillance recordings and appealing a decision of a non-presidential member out of time.