Insurance Law

Contact: Carter Newell (Queensland, Australia)

The Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation and other Legislation Bill 2013 (Qld) (Bill) was passed by the Queensland Parliament on 17 October 2013. The Bill makes significant changes to the Queensland workers' compensation scheme which is designed to reduce WorkCover premiums.  One of the ways the Bill aims to achieve this purpose is by limiting workers' access to common law damages under the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) (Act) by:

• Only allowing workers assessed as having a degree of permanent impairment (DPI) greater than 5% to pursue common law claims for damages against their employers;
• Overturning the Queensland Court of Appeal's decision in Foster & Anor v Cameron [2011] QCA 48 and clarifying that a worker cannot convert gratuitous services received prior to the trial (even if those services are a mix of paid and gratuitously rendered) into paid services after the trial; and
• Increasing the onus of proof for compensable psychiatric or psychological injuries.

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