Accident compensation - Workers' compensation - Statutory benefits increased - Increase applicable to pre-amendment injury - Employer's liability increased by "additional amount" - "Additional amount" payable by insurer on behalf of employer - Recompense from statutory fund for insurer - Contribution agreement between successive insurers - Whether relevant date is date of earliest or latest compensable injury - Whether recompense available to insurer only if payment made other than by virtue of contribution agreement or common law claim - Whether recompense available to insurer only if all injuries are pre-amendment injuries - Workers' Compensation Act 1958 (No 6419), s2A(3), s2C(5), s2C(7), s2D(1), s2D(2), s2G(1), s2G(3).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injury arising out of or in the course of employment - Injury worsened by medical negligence - Damages - Damages for pecuniary loss - Statutory prohibition on damages for pecuniary loss - Exceptions to statutory prohibition - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s135(1).

Accident compensation - Workers' compensation - Workers' compensation insurer - "Responsibility costs" under statutory insurance policy - Victorian Workcover Authority - Liability of Victorian Workcover Authority for failed insurer's responsibility costs - Meaning of "claim" - Solicitors' fees incurred by insurer - Whether responsibility costs act Workers Compensation Act 1958 (No 6419) s98, s101, s102.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Negligence - Duty of care - Proximity - Cyclist injured in accident caused by negligence of motorist - Cyclist's employer liable to pay workers compensation - Whether motorist owed employer a duty of care - Employer's statutory right of indemnity - Contributory negligence - Apportionment - Workers Compensation Act 1958 (No. 6419) ss. 63(2) 67.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Damages - Pecuniary loss - Serious injury suffered before 1 December 1992 - Incapacity not known until after 1 December 1992 - Meaning of "incapacity" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) ss. 135 135A(2)(b) 135A(19) - Accident Compensation (WorkCover) Act 1992 (No. 67) s. 46.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injury arising out of or in the course of employment - Apprentice worker - Injury occurring while the worker attended a school as an apprentice - Damages - Damages for pecuniary loss - Statutory prohibition on damages for pecuniary loss - Exceptions to statutory prohibition - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) ss. 83(2) 135(1).

Precedent - Court of Appeal - Full Court - Whether Court of Appeal is bound by a decision of its own or the Full Court.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Damages - Injury occurring before 1 December 1992 - Proceedings not commenced before 30 June 1994 - Statutory exclusion of damages - Whether exclusion applies to "serious injury" cases - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) ss. 135A(2)(b) 135B - Accident Compensation (Amendment) Act 1994 (No. 50) s. 64.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Recovery from injury within 12 months of commencement of weekly payments - Statutory requirement that employer re-employ worker - Tort - Breach of statutory duty - Whether employer liable to worker for failing to re-employ - Whether obligation to re-employ only arises when employer aware of worker's recovery within the 12 month period - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) s. 122.

Accident compensation - Workers' compensation - "Serious injury" - Aggravation of pre-existing condition - Proceeding commenced after 30 June 1994 - Case confined to injury suffered after 1 December 1992 - Aggravation by a single incident - No accumulation of repetitive injuries - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) ss. 5 135A(2)(a) 135A(2)(b) 135B(2) 135B(4).

Accident compensation - Workers' compensation - Authorised insurer - Medical panel - Reference of medical question to medical panel - Panel's opinion conclusive - Power of authorised insurer to make referral - Statutes - Interpretation - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No. 10191) ss. 67 68 93CD(4)(b) 104B(9).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Indemnity for employer or insurer paying compensation - Payable by third party otherwise liable for damages - Assessment of indemnity - Based on compensation paid or damages otherwise payable by third party - Interest - Whether included in calculation of indemnity amounts - Negligence - Joint tortfeasors - Contribution - Apportionment - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 138 - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110) s 60(1).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injury arising out of employment - Whether employment a significant contributing factor - Morbid grief reaction following death of child - Mistaken belief that foetus had been exposed to dangerous levels of lead - Appeal - Magistrates' Court - Question of law - Question of fact - Finding by magistrate that injury would probably not have been suffered if the employment had not taken place - Whether magistrate constrained to find the employment was a significant contributing factor - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(1B) 82(1) - Magistrates' Court Act 1989 (No 51) s 109.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Magistrates' Court - Medical panel - Reference of medical question to medical panel - Request for referral by a party - Whether magistrate required to refer - Poorly worded question - - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 43(3) 45(1)(b).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Common law proceeding for damages - Proceeding commenced after 11 November 1997 - Amendments to legislation with retrospective effect to 12 November 1997 - Whether proceeding affected by amendments - Statutes - Interpretation - Retrospective operation - Application to pending proceedings - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 135A(2DE) 135A(6A) 138A - Accident Compensation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 1997 (No 107) ss 2(2) 47 51.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Serious long-term impairment of body function - Identification of body function - Injuries to elbow and shoulder - Whether causing impairment to a single body function - Aggregation of injuries - Separate injuries causing impairment - Injuries arising out of separate and unrelated incidents - Whether aggregation of injuries permissible - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 135A(19)(a).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Claim for lump sum compensation - Statutory requirement for conciliation - Statutory offer and counter-offer - Deemed offer when no actual offer made - Costs - Statutory regime for costs - Based on comparison between judgment amount and amounts of offer and counter-offer - Whether applicable to deemed statutory offer of nothing - Statutes - Interpretation - Retrospective operation - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 50(2A) 98 104 - Accident Compensation (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act 1997 (No 107) s 2(2).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - County Court - Medical panel - Reference of medical question to medical panel - Request for referral by a party - Refusal of party's request for referral - Definition of "medical question" - Definition of "injury" - Whether injury could be subject of a "medical question" when it was no longer an "injury" under the legislation - Aggravation injury - Injury in primary sense - Poorly worded question - Table of maims - Assessment of level of impairment - Evidence - Admissibility - Medical report obtained during trial - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 45 67 98 104.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Death - Injury arising out of or in the course of employment - Deemed employment - Whether worker "temporarily absent ... during any authorised recess" - Meaning of "authorised recess" - Whether employment was "a significant contributing factor" - Injury arising from underlying cause - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 82(2) 83 92.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Calculation - Pre-injury average weekly earnings - Meaning of "earnings" - Whether non-pecuniary benefits included - "Ordinary time rate of pay" - Whether fixed by employment contract - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(1) 5A 5B 93A 93B.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Notice of rejection of claim - Validity of notice - No valid notice of rejection given - Deemed acceptance of claim - Entitlement to interim weekly payments - Whether dependent on establishing general entitlement to compensation - Appeal - Question of law - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 99 109 114.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Medical panel - Magistrates' Court - Reference of medical question to medical panel - Evidence - Report of medical panel - Reasons for panel's opinion - Admissibility of reasons - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 45 48 68 - Administrative Law Act 1978 (No 9234) s 10.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Serious injury - Total and permanent incapacity - Medical panel - Opinion - Panel opinion that worker partially and permanently incapacitated - Court ordering compensation on basis of total incapacity up to date of panel's opinion - Whether order inconsistent with panel's opinion - Meaning of "totally and permanently incapacitated" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 45 68(4) 93A 93B.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Benefits - Entitlement - Injury - Meaning - Statutory requirement that employment "a significant contributing factor" - Whether applicable to all injuries - Injury in the primary sense of the statutory definition - Nature of causal nexus to satisfy test of "a significant contributing factor" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(1) 5(1B) 82(1) 86 98(1) 99 135A(2) - Accident Compensation (WorkCover) Act 1992 (No 67).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Appeal - County Court - Uninsured Employers and Indemnity Scheme - Determination of liability by County Court - Appeal limited to question of law raised in the proceedings below - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74 - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 52 - Accident Compensation (WorkCover Insurance) Act 1993 (No 50) ss 5 61(3).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Employer and employee - Negligence - Safe system of work - Worker's services provided to employer by company incorporated and controlled by worker - Worker injured at work - Employer liable to worker for damages - Damages reduced for contributory negligence - Employer's third party claim against company - Contribution and indemnity - Whether company's liability co-extensive or co-terminous with worker's - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) s 23B.

Contract - Termination by effluxion of time - Parties continuing to perform contract - Whether contract renewed or extended - Indemnity clause - Construction - Whether applicable where negligence by proferens.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Common law proceeding for damages - Right to institute proceeding accrued on 26 October 1997 - Proceeding commenced after 11 November 1997 - Amendments to legislation with retrospective effect to 12 November 1997 - Amendment to formal pre-conditions to bringing common law proceeding - Whether proceeding affected by amendments - Statutes - Interpretation - Retrospective operation - Presumption against retrospectivity - Application to pending proceedings - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 135A 138 - Accident Compensation (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act 1997 (No 107) ss 47 51 - Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (No 10096) s 14(2)(e).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Impairment - Assessment - American Medical Association Guides - Interpretation - Rounding off provisions - Medical panels - Whether panel entitled to round off degree of impairment - Discretion - Whether rounding off provision confined to medical assessors - "May" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 91.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Indemnity - Injury - Payment of compensation - Injury caused under circumstances creating legal liability in third party - Authority entitled to indemnity from third party - Assessment of indemnity - Statute amended between date of injury and date when compensation paid - Ascertainment of date when entitlement to indemnity arose - Ascertainment of date for quantification of indemnity - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 138(1) 138(3).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Common law proceeding for damages - Application for leave to bring proceeding - Entitlement to damages conditional upon date of injury - Injuries occurring on or after 1 December 1992 - Whether precondition to grant of leave to bring proceeding - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 135A(2) 135A(4)(b) 135A(6) 135A(19)

Evidence - Admissibility - Discretion - Manner of giving of evidence - Personal injuries litigation - Surveillance film of plaintiff - Cross-examination of plaintiff - Defendant seeking to show film to plaintiff - Defendant declining to provide dates on which plaintiff was subjected to surveillance - Defendant declining to provide film maker for cross-examination - Ruling refusing showing of film to plaintiff - Whether trial judge's discretion miscarried - Whether person depicted in film or person who made film was "maker of the statement" - Evidence Act 1958 (No 6246) s 55(1)(a)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Industrial deafness - Cumulative injuries - Award of compensation under 1958 Act table of maims - Continuing employment in same environment - Amendment of legislation in 1994 - New compensation entitlement based on whole-person impairment - Imposition of threshold requirement of 7% binaural loss - Threshold increased to 10% in 1997 - Further industrial deafness - Subsequent claim for compensation - Assessment of whole-person impairment arising from consecutive injuries - Roles of medical panel and Victorian WorkCover Authority in decision-making process - Whether threshold applicable to each subsequent compensation claim or confined to initial claim - Strong competing arguments as to proper construction of legislation - Anomalies on both sides of construction dispute - Worker's construction preferred - Extraneous material used as aid to resolving construction dispute - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 82 88 89 90 91 98 98C 104B(9)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Common law proceeding for damages - Preconditions for bringing common law proceeding - Proceeding commenced after 12 November 1997 - Amendments to preconditions with retrospective effect to 12 November 1997 - Whether proceeding affected by amendments - Determination by Victorian WorkCover Authority prior to 12 November 1997 that claimant's degree of impairment less than 30% - Statutes - Interpretation - Retrospective operation - Application to pending proceeding - Authority's determination insufficient to entitle claimant to issue proceeding - No accrued right to sue - Failure to issue proceeding within prescribed time - Action barred - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 135A(2DE) 135A(4) - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74(2D)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Spinal injury - Whole person permanent impairment - Assessment - Table of maims injury - Total loss determination - Victorian WorkCover Authority - Obligation to advise worker "of the assessments and the entitlement to compensation" - Independent medical examination - Purpose - Statutory specification - To "obtain assessment ... and ... determination" - Medical examiner's assessment that worker had total impairment - Whether examiner's determination binding on authority - Worker entitled to be advised only of relevant assessment - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 39 52 98C 98E 104B

Statutes - Interpretation - Frequently amended statute - Complex legislative scheme - Words read into statute to effect Parliament's presumed intention - Conditions to be satisfied.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Common law proceeding for damages - Application for leave to bring proceeding - Criteria for grant of leave - Requirement of employment-related compensable injury occurring between 31 August 1985 and 12 November 1997 - Judge refusing leave - Whether judge posed the wrong question for determination - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 4(1) 135A(1) 135A(2) 135A(4)(b) 135A(6) 135A(19)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Pre-existing condition - Instability likely to result in incapacity - Worker's exposure to unsafe system of work - Aggravation or acceleration of pre-existing instability - Assessment of damages - Ascertainment of additional incapacity attributable to aggravation - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 135A(19)(a)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Successful claim for arrears - Interest - Calculation - Whether interest calculated on each weekly payment from date of accrual or on entirety of outstanding payments from date of incapacity - Whether interest to be calculated on gross or after tax amount - Whether deductions for income tax and Centrelink allowances - "The amount of outstanding weekly payments" - "In respect of the period specified" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 114E(1)(b)

Statutes - Interpretation - Whether choice between competing interpretations - Whether rewriting of statute required - Conditions for reading words into statute - Whether satisfied.

Accident compensation - Workers' compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Cause of action arising before 12 November 1997 - Incapacity arising from injury not known until after 12 November 1997 - Leave application not to be commenced unless specified steps taken by worker before expiration of three years after date incapacity "became known" - Onus of proof on worker - Proof of absence of actual subjective knowledge sufficient - Whether discharged - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 135A(4)(b) 135AC(b)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Work-related death - Dependency claim - Domestic partner - Deceased workers earnings very small - Claimants earnings substantially greater than those of deceased worker - Claimant partly dependent on deceased workers earnings - Two-stage test for entitlement - Statutory fiction calling for claimants earnings to be disregarded - Claimant mainly dependent on workers earnings by application of statutory fiction - Overlapping definitions of "dependant" and "dependent partner" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 82(2) 92A

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Medical panels - Binding opinions - Abolition and restoration of common law right to sue for damages - Effect of restoration on amended medical panels scheme - Prior panel opinion concerning statutory benefits claim - Later application to institute common law claim - Whether County Court bound by panel opinion - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 45(1A) 68(4) 134AB

Statutory interpretation - Purposive interpretation - Context - History - Literal interpretation productive of manifest absurdity.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Proscription on recovering damages for injury suffered between 12 November 1997 and before 20 October 1999 - Prescribed circumstances for recovering damages for injury suffered after 20 October 1999 - Necessary preliminary step for plaintiff to show he or she suffered a compensable injury after 20 October 1999 - Principles to be applied to plaintiff's claim - Employment before and after 20 October 1999 - Nature of appeal - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB 134AD 134A

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Physiological change - Impairment to body function not sufficient - Serious injury arising on or after 20 October 1999 - Necessary for injury to be linked to employment on or after that date - Permanent serious impairment - Necessary to demonstrate likelihood that impairment would last for foreseeable future - Loss of earning capacity - Suitable alternative employment - Whether concerned with practicalities of worker's employability - Onus of proof - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 134AB(1) 134AB(2) 134AB(16) 134AB(37) 134AB(38) 134AD

Courts - Appeals - Court of Appeal - Appeal from County Court - Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Appeal from determination regarding serious injury - Principles and constraints - Court directed to "decide for itself" - Meaning and effect - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AC s 134AD

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Chronic pain condition - Psychological embellishment of physical symptoms - Differentiation of psychological and physical consequences of injury - Appeal against grant of leave - Trial judge's reasons inadequate - Appeal allowed - Court of Appeal authorised to decide serious injury issue for itself - Credibility issue necessitating retrial - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16), 134AB(37), 134AB(38)(h), 134AD

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Damages - Costs - Statutory scheme of compulsory pre-trial settlement offers - Costs consequences of refusing offer - Plaintiff's liability to bear own costs of trial - Costs liability reckoned according to amount of judgment for plaintiff - Ascertainment of amount - Reduction for statutory compensation payments made prior to trial - Time for effecting reduction - Whether relevant judgment equated to jury verdict or net amount after reduction - "If judgment is obtained ... in an amount" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB(12), 134AB(25), 134AB(28)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Widow's claim for work-related death - Whether deceased person worker or independent contractor - Competing indicia - Deceased conducting bricklaying partnership - Partnership engaged to undertake work on construction site - Temporary halt to bricklaying work - Deceased separately engaged on hourly rate to dig trench - Contemporaneous contract for services and contract of service - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(1), 8(1)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Lump sum compensation - Costs - Worker succeeding on weekly payments claim and failing on lump sum claim - Order that employer pay costs solely attributable to weekly payments claim - No order for costs of unsuccessful claim - "Otherwise" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 50(1), 50(2A), 98, 98A, 104.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Permanent impairment - Assessment - American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (4th ed) - Interpretation - Internal inconsistency - Falso demonstratio non nocet cum de corpore constat - Spinal injury - Beneficial effect of surgery to be disregarded - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 67, 91, 98C, 104B(9).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Leave to commence common law proceedings - Injury suffered on or after 20 October 1999 - Onus of proof - Proof of compensable injury amounting to serious injury after relevant date - Inconsistencies in plaintiff's statements - Pre-existing injury to lower back - Exacerbation basis for claim impermissible on appeal - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(1), 134AB(16)(b), 134AB(38), 134AD, 134AE

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to commence common law proceedings - Time bar - Serious injury - Cause of action arising before 12 November 1997 - Injury - Consequences of injury - Redundancy - Worker unable to obtain substitute employment - Worker's state of relevant knowledge - Whether knowledge first acquired before relevant date - Knowledge of severity of injury and incapacity - Knowledge of pecuniary disadvantage - Knowledge of consequential incapacity - "Incapacity arising from the injury" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 135AC(b)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - County Court - Leave refused - Reasons - Adequacy - Impression and value judgment - Status of County Court hearing serious injury applications - Not specialist tribunal for purpose of such applications - "Decide for itself" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16), 134AB(37), 134AC, 134AD - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74.

Courts and judges - Appeals - Court of Appeal - Appeal from County Court - Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Appeal from refusal of leave to bring common law proceedings - Nature of appeal - Conventional rehearing - Onus of persuasion - Court of Appeal directed to decide for itself - Record not equipping Court of Appeal to do so - Proceeding remitted to County Court - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16), 134AB(37), 134AC, 134AD, 134AE

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Employer - Liability to pay compensation - Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA) - Indemnity claim against third party - Hypothetical assessment - Formula - Reasonable costs of medical services - Cost of medical reports obtained by VWA - Whether Pt VB of Wrongs Act 1958 applicable to hypothetical assessment - Gratuitous services - Prohibition on damages for gratuitous services - "Amount of compensation paid or payable" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5, 99, 138(1), 138(3) - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) ss 28B, 28C(2)(c), 28IA

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injury arising out of or in the course of employment - Serious injury - Common law damages entitlement - Procedural restrictions enacted in 2000 - Whether restrictions applicable to whistleblower's statutory reprisal action against employer - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB - Whistleblowers Protection Act 2001 (No 36) s 19

Tort - Whistleblowers protection - Protected notification - Detrimental action - Employer and employee - Alleged reprisal - Statutory reprisal action against employer and fellow employee - Whistleblowers Protection Act 2001 (No 36) s 19

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA) - Entitlement to indemnity - Third party liability - Employer - Labour hire company - Hiring out of employee - Employee injured at host employer's premises - VWA reimbursing employer for weekly compensation - VWA indemnity claim against host employer - Nature of labour hire contract - "Circumstances creating a legal liability in a third party" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 9 138.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Application refused - Reasons - Inadequate - Appeal - Principles governing remitter for rehearing - Whether Court of Appeal as well-placed as the trial judge to decide the application - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(37) 134AC 134AE

Courts and judges - Appeals - Court of Appeal - Appeal from County Court - Principles and constraints - Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Appeal from dismissal of application for leave to bring proceeding for damages - Court of Appeal directed to "decide for itself" - Reliance upon evidence and other material before trial judge - Permissible use of trial judge's reasons - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134C 134AD - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Appeal against refusal of leave - Serious injury - Chronic low back pain condition - Possible pre-existing degenerative condition - Disentangling of psychological and psychiatric consequences of compensable physical injury - Consideration of all evidence - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(19) 134AB(37) 134AB(38)(h) 134AD.

Courts and judges - Appeals - Appeal from County Court - Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury application - Court of Appeal to decide serious injury question for itself - Conflicting expert medical opinion - Determination according to entirety of evidence.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Foot fracture - Chronic regional pain syndrome - Physical origin - Loss of earning capacity - Regard to be had to the realities of the labour market - "Suitable employment" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 134AB(38)(f).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Widow's claim arising from work-related death - Dependency - Earnings - Worker and wife employed by corporate trustee of family trust - Remuneration comprising wages and trust distributions - Whether evidence that distributions were earnings - Whether no evidence ground a question of law - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5A 52 82(2) 92A 92B

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Compensable injury - Worker - Contract of service - Contractors as deemed workers - Serious injury application - Dismissal - Appeal - Whether appellant regularly carried on trade or business in his name or under firm or business name - Whether work incidental to appellant's trade or business - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 8(1) 134AB(16) - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74(3).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Contribution between defendants - Breach of statutory duty - Contract between defendants - Breach of contract - Damages - Hadley v Baxendale - Remoteness - Negligence - Pure economic loss - Vulnerability - Perre v Apand - Causes of action statute-barred - Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (No 6295) s 5(1) - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 156 - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) ss 23B 24(2).

Contract - Implied terms - Statutory warranties - Trade practices - Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) s 74.

Trade practices - Misleading and deceptive conduct - Representation with respect to any future matter - Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) ss 51A 52 53(aa) 55A.

Limitation of actions - Causes of actions - Accrual - Contract - Negligence - Misleading and deceptive conduct - Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (No 6295) s 5(1) - Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) s 82(2).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Victorian WorkCover Authority - Indemnity rights - Recovery proceeding - Proper plaintiff - Whether authority entitled to sue in own name - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 138 - Accident Compensation (WorkCover Insurance) Act 1993 (No 50) ss 7 9.

Insurance - Statutory policy - Construction - WorkCover compensation - Indemnity - "Liable to pay by force of the Accident Compensation Act" - "The employer's liability at common law or otherwise".

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Common law damages - Reintroduction for injury suffered on or after 20 October 1999 - Compensable injury - Aggravation of pre-existing condition - Credibility of worker - Appeal - Adequacy of reasons - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 134AB(1) 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(19)(c) 134AB(38) 134AE - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74(1) 74(3)

Practice and procedure - Appeal - Fresh evidence - Leave - Workers compensation - Medical report relevant to date injury suffered - Finality of litigation - Application refused.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Injury - Course of employment - Successive short-term contracts of employment - Injury suffered prior to commencement of next contract - University lecturer injured in bookshop inspection of teaching texts - Whether activity sufficiently incidental to performance of forthcoming work - "Arising out of or in the course of any employment" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 82(1).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Common law proceedings - Competence - Statutory bar - Farm worker - Neighbouring landowner objecting to farm activity - Altercation - Worker directing racist remark at neighbour - Worker punched by neighbour - Worker's claim for damages for assault - Whether barred - Whether dispute related to employer's business - Whether worker abandoned employment - Whether private quarrel - "Arising out of employment" - "Arising in the course of employment" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 82 134AB.

Tort - Negligence - Concurrent tortfeasors causing same damage - Comparative fault as between plaintiff and each tortfeasor - Personal injury - Employee injured in fall - Action against employer and occupier of premises - Employer abandoning contributory negligence plea - Employee succeeding against both defendants - Claim against occupier reduced due to contributory negligence - Employer precluded from relying on verdict against occupier - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) s 26(1)(b).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Costs - Statutory regime of offer and counter-offer - Costs consequences of quantum of verdict - Worker's action against employer and occupier of premises - Occupier ordered to pay plaintiff's costs - Whether plaintiff prevented by statutory regime from obtaining costs order - Whether expression "each party" included third party - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB(12) 134AB(28)(d) - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) s 26(1)(b).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Medical panels - Binding opinions - Application for leave to institute proceedings for common law damages - Earlier medical panel opinion obtained for purpose of establishing worker's entitlement to weekly compensation - Whether binding on court in subsequent application for leave to bring proceedings for damages - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 39 45(1A) 68(4) 82 134AB(16)(b).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Lump sum - Entitlement - One claim only per compensable event - Knee injury - Claim made and settled - Delayed surgery - Complications from surgery - No medical negligence - No new intervening act - Further claim - "Same event or circumstance" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 82(1) 83(1)(d) 104B(5A) 104B(5AA) 104B(5AB)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Medical panel - Opinion - Statement of reasons - Alleged inadequacy - No error of law - Administrative Law Act 1978 (No 9234) s 8 - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 45(1)

Administrative law - Judicial review - Administrative tribunal - Reasons - Adequacy - No common law obligation to provide reasons.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Trial - Evidence - Admissibility - Victorian WorkCover Authority ("VWA") - Pre-trial disclosure obligations - Compliance - Prohibition on admission of undisclosed evidentiary material - Scope of prohibition - Prohibition expressly applicable to claim in respect of deemed serious injury - Whether prohibition applied to common law proceedings brought with leave of the court or the authority's consent - Co-worker - Viva voce evidence - Denial that injury-causing incident occurred - Non-disclosure of witness statement in possession of VWA - Trial judge ruling that worker had waived reliance on statutory prohibition - Ministerial direction affecting question of construction - No residual discretion in trial judge to admit or exclude evidence - "Other material" - Ministerial directions 3, 7.1, 7.4 - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB(4) (5) (7) (8) (11).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Psychiatric injury - Common law claim - Damages - Assessment - Leave to commence proceedings - Consequences in later proceeding - Whether employer precluded from contending worker did not suffer serious injury - Issue estoppel - Degree of impairment in excess of 30% - Deemed serious injury - Medical panel opinion that degree of impairment exceeded 30% - Special case stated - "Serious injury" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 67 68(4) 104B(9) 134AB(15) 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(19) - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 76(1).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Employer - Self-insurer - Approval - Conditions - Expiration of approval - Each subsequent application for approval a fresh application not a renewal - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 141 142 148.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Weekly payments - Pleadings - Statement of claim - Refusal of amendment application - Refusal of application to refer questions to statutory medical panel - Earlier adverse panel opinion - Discretion miscarrying - Not open to determine applications while judicial review proceeding of adverse panel opinion pending - No utility in remitting proceeding to County Court - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(3)(a) 52 - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74(2D).

Practice and procedure - Appeal - Interlocutory order - Workers compensation - Pleadings - Refusal of amendment application - Whether appeal as of right or by leave - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(3)(a) 52 - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) s 74(2D).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Severe mental or permanent severe behavioural disturbance or disorder - Cause of action arising before 12 November 1997 - Limitation period - Expiration of three years after incapacity became known - Proof - Onus - Worker - Sufficiency - Absence of subjective knowledge of facts which, viewed objectively, constituted serious injury - "Became known" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 135A(4)(b) 135AC(b).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Damages - Serious injury - Impairment - Evaluation - Fact, degree and value judgment - Imprecise adjectival criteria - Utility of check lists of relevant criteria - Need for consistency of application - Like cases to be treated alike - Utility of comparisons with earlier cases - Worker's stoicism - "Pain and suffering consequence" - "More than significant or marked and ... at least very considerable" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(38)(b) 134AD

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Damages - Serious injury - Impairment - Evaluation - Fact, degree and value judgment - Worker's stoicism - Aggravation of pre-existing asymptomatic degenerative cervical spine condition and consequences of soft tissue shoulder injury - Consideration of consequences of impairment as a whole - Adverse credit findings when credit not in issue - "Pain and suffering consequence" - "More than significant or marked and ... at least very considerable" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(16)(b) 134AB(19)(a) 134AB(37) 134AB(38)(c) 134AD.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Leave to bring common law claim - Loss of earning capacity - Pain and suffering - Comparator - Whether appellant permitted to index "without injury" earnings to time of hearing of application - Possible relevance of earnings of comparable workers outside "window" period - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB(16)(b) (38)(e) (f).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Employer - Insurance - Premiums - Liability - Calculation - Workplace classification - Statutory premiums order - Construction - Natural and ordinary meaning - Predominant activity test - "Manufacturing of meat or meat products" - "Predominant activity" - WorkCover Industry Classification C2155L - WorkCover Industry Classification F4761T - WorkCover Insurance Premium Order (No 15) 2007/2008 - Accident Compensation (WorkCover Insurance) Act 1993 (No 50) s 26

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Leave to bring common law proceedings - Serious injury - Loss of earning capacity - Assessment - Pre-injury capacity - Suitable employment - Criteria - Worker's place of residence - Employer - Evidentiary burden of proof - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 134AB(19) 134AB(38)(f).

Costs - Statutory direction - Workers compensation - Leave granted to commence common law proceedings - Pain and suffering claim only - Lapse of Calderbank offer - Judge not entitled to take account of Calderbank offer - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 134AB(27)(a).

Evidence - Expert evidence - Limits of medico-legal expertise - Workers compensation - Suitability of particular employment - Analysis of necessary physical capacity and individual impairment.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Injuries suffered in 2003 - Serious injury - Leave application dismissed - Loss of earning capacity - 40% requirement - Pain and suffering consequences - Fitness for work - Medical evidence - Conflict - Trial judge misapplying evidence - Former nurse aged 69 at time of trial - Qualified to continue working - Precluded from successful retraining - Court of Appeal deciding leave application for itself - No fresh evidence adduced on appeal - Very considerable loss of earning capacity established - "Suitable employment" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AB(37) 134AB(38)(b) 134AB(38)(c) 134AD

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Serious injury - Physical and psychological injuries - Statutory certificate for psychological injuries only - Whether worker confined in damages claim to certified injury - Whether once a serious injury established total injury compensable - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5 82 91 98C 104B 134AB(1) (2) (37)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - One claim only per compensable event - Physical injuries - Permanent disability - Claim for lump sum compensation - Later claim for psychiatric injury arising from same event - First claim vitiated by claimant's mental incapacity - Appellant incapable of recognising own psychiatric impairment - Second claim not barred - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 45 98C 104B(5A) 104B(5AA)

Appeal - Question of law - Whether open to challenge primary decision as not open on evidence - Whether open to contend that primary judge bound to reach different conclusion - "Raised during those proceedings" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 52(1)

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Impairment benefit - Assessment - Medical question - AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment - Referral to medical panel - Panel function - Provision of opinion - Non-judicial - Engagement of consultants by panel - Whether panel assessed impairment - "In accordance with" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 63 65 66 67 68 91(1)(a) 104B(9) (12)

Administrative law - Judicial review - Non-adjudicative body - Medical panel - Expert opinion - Reasons - Standard of scrutiny.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Indemnity - Entitlement - Third party liability - Worker injured in transport accident in course of employment - Self-insured employer paying compensation to worker - Employer's claim for indemnity from third party vehicle driver - Transport accident compensation scheme extinguishing right to common law damages - Statutory compensation dependent on satisfying impairment threshold - No application by injured employee for impairment assessment - Employer not entitled to indemnity - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 134AA 134AB 134A 135 138 - Transport Accident Act 1986 (No 111) s 93

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Impairment benefits - Assessment - Medical panel - American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment - Relationship between statute and Guides - Cervicothoracic spine - Aggravation of pre-existing anchylosing spondylitis - Total restriction of neck mobility - Assessment of nil impairment - Panel approach precluded by statute - Guides (4th Ed) s 3.3e, 3.3f(5), 3.3f(9) - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 91(1) 91(7)(c)

Administrative law - Judicial review - Certiorari - Jurisdictional error - Error of law on face of record - Whether leave to appeal from refusal of order required - Competing authorities - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 O 56

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Jury trial - Causation - Assessment of damages - Pain and suffering - Vicissitudes of life - Pre-existing medical condition - Aggravation - Risk of further injury - No direction concerning vicissitudes - Reliance on written medical report - Risk that jury would misuse written report to reason impermissibly - Appeal allowed.

Legal practitioners - Fair trial - Closing address - Personal injuries claim - Submissions to jury as to quantum of damages - Defendant's counsel alluding to his surprise as to what plaintiff's counsel would be submitting - Inappropriate personal observation.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Support care worker for disabled persons - Back injury - Aggravation and acceleration - Jury trial - Judge's charge - Adequacy - Principle in Watts v Rake - Vicissitudes of life - Adequacy of pain and suffering damages - Adequacy of pecuniary loss damages - Contributory negligence - Whether contributory negligence open - Whether jury's apportionment open.

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Jury trial - Negligence - Breach of statutory duty - Whether jury's finding of breach of statutory duty mandated a finding of negligence - Jury assessment - Contributory negligence - Damages - Pecuniary loss damages - Occupational Health and Safety (Manual Handling) Regulations 1999 (No 84) regs 14 15 16 - Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 (No 54) regs 3.1.1 3.1.2

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Impairment - Assessment - Medical panel - American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment - Interpretation - Spinal impairment categories - Multilevel fractures of spinal segments - Whether constituted multilevel spine segment structural compromise - Whether panel decision vitiated by jurisdictional error - Whether expert evidence admissible on question of construction of Guides - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) s 91(1) - "As with fracture" - "Fractures" - American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (4th ed) ss 3.3f 3.3g Tables 70 72

Evidence - Admissibility - Expert evidence - Personal injuries - Impairment assessment - Whether technical terminology - Use of expert medical evidence in aid of construction - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 55(1) 76(1) 79

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Entitlement - Work capacity - Medical panel - Review of decision - Workplace injury to knee - Diminished capacity for work - Later unrelated unconnected non-workplace injury to shoulder with low back pain - Impermissible aggregation of injuries - Logic and policy - "No current work capacity" - "Arising from" - "Single incapacity" - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 5(1) 45 93 93C - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 O 56