Personal Injury
Workers compensation Lawyers

You will be entitled to workers compensation, so long as you meet the below requirements:

• You must be classified as a ‘worker’
• You must have suffered an injury or illness
• You must be able to prove that your employment conditions were a substantial or main contributing factor to your injury or illness

Please note that in the event you have suffered a psychological injury as a result of your workplace, it is important that you also establish that your injury was not “wholly or predominantly caused by the reasonable action of the employer”.

This means that your psychological injury was not wholly or predominantly caused due to a:

• Performance appraisal;
• Disciplinary action;
• Promotion;
• Demotion;
• Retrenchment; or
• Dismissal.

You are eligible for workers compensation in the event you are classified as a ‘worker’ under the workers compensation scheme. For the purpose of the workers compensation legislation, this refers to employees or workers that are ‘deemed employees’.

‘Deemed employees’ come in all classes of workers, including salespeople, labour hire workers, referees, entertainers. There is no specific set of criteria in determining a deemed employee, with many factors coming into it, including their reliance on that specific employer, uniform and often what the “reasonable person” would think.

‘Contractors’ are workers that are not covered under workers compensation insurance, and are often required to obtain their own insurance for workers under them. Contractors more often than not, engage in obtaining their own work or contracts, provide quotes for work, and carry on an independent business.

The Workers Compensation scheme covers a multitude of injuries and diseases. Under the workers compensation scheme, you are covered for various physical injuries, psychological injuries, dust diseases, hearing injuries, cardiological injuries, skin injuries etc.

No matter the injury, so long as a worker can establish that their workplace was either the substantial or main contributing factor in causing their injury, the worker will be entitled to compensation.

The Workers compensation scheme also provides compensation for the dependents of a worker, in the event the worker unfortunately dies during the course of their employment.

A worker will be entitled to a lump sum payment in the event that their injury or injuries are such, that they are assessed over the recommended threshold.

Under the Workers Compensation Scheme, a worker is eligible for a lump sum payment if they are assessed by an Approved Medico-Legal Doctor as being over 11% whole person impairment (physical injuries) or over 15% whole person impairment (psychological injuries).

If the worker is unable to reach these thresholds, they will not be entitled to a lump sum payment, however this does not mean the entitlement to weekly compensation or medical treatment expenses will end, and it will be important to speak with our Lawyers if this occurs.

Nothing! We don’t charge you anything for workers compensation claims. We are Independent Review Office IRO (formally WIRO) approved lawyers. IRO will pay us directly for any work that we do.

We will also fund all your expenses (disbursements), so you are never out-of-pocket. IRO reimburse our expenses at the end of your workers compensation claim.

For all other work injury compensation claims we will represent you on our no win, no fee basis.

In relation to a worker’s compensation claim, all disbursements and legal costs are covered by the Independent Review Office (IRO). IRO is responsible for providing funding to a lawyer in order to investigate or dispute a claim on the workers behalf.

This means that any clinical records, reports, necessary travel expenses for assessments, medico-legal reports and legal fees will be covered by IRO.

This is an effective way of ensuring that there is no added financial pressure placed on the injured worker, whilst ensuring they are afforded legal advice.

In order for a worker to make a claim for negligence against their employer, they must meet two criteria:

1. Their injury or injuries that were sustained during the course of employment have been assessed and accepted to be over 15% whole person impairment; and
2. The injury or injuries were as a result of the negligence of the employer.

Once the worker has proceeded with their lump sum compensation claim under the statutory scheme, and it is confirmed that they are over 15% whole person impairment, they will then be able to pursue the claim through the civil system so long as there was negligence.

In the event you are eligible to bring forward a negligence claim or Work Injury Damages claim, as it is often referred to, you are eligible to make a claim for your past and future economic loss.

Under the workers compensation legislation, a worker that is injured in the course of work, is only eligible for the loss of earnings as a result of the workplace injury. Please note that any settlement or court decision on costs will be less than the workers compensation entitlements already paid by the insurer up until the time of the settlement or decision.

The weekly payments that you receive in the event that you are off work as a result of your workplace injury will differ from your weekly earnings just before the time of your injury.

Under the Workers Compensation Scheme, the insurer will assess your Pre-Injury Average Weekly Earnings (PIAWE) up until 52 weeks prior to the injury (or less in the event the worker has not worked for the employer for that long). This will consider overtime and other bonuses the worker may have received up until that point.

Once the PIAWE has been calculated, the insurer will pay you the following weekly payments dependent on the period:

1. First period (13 weeks) – the worker will receive 95% of the gross PIAWE calculated each week, in the event the worker has no capacity for work.
2. Second period (14 – 130 Weeks) – the worker will receive 80% of the gross PIAWE calculated each week, in the event the worker has no capacity for work.
3. Third period (131 – 260 Weeks) – the worker will receive 80% of the gross PIAWE calculated each week.

Please note that in the event the worker has returned to work on suitable duties and reduced hours, the worker will be entitled to up to 95% of the gross PIAWE per week, less the earnings they are receiving for work done.