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 - 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 - "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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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)