Nsw Slams Door On A Better Deal For Injured

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday June 13, 2006

Michael Pelly

THE NSW Government has torpedoed hopes of a better deal for accident victims, saying that any changes to its negligence reforms would increase insurance premiums by almost a third.

A parliamentary committee has proposed a rethink on assessing injuries, but the Government says the "only obvious" beneficiaries of the process would be those with minor injuries.

It rejected most of the other 25 recommendations outright, saying they would "destablise the balance between the rights to injured people to compensation and the ability of the community to pay".

The Legislative Council's Inquiry into Personal Injury Compensation Law said it was completely opposed to the medical assessment guidelines. Judges have labelled the scheme harsh and said the level of impairment required to recover damages is too high.

For motor vehicle accidents, a person must lose 10 per cent of their body function to qualify for general damages, which cover pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss of enjoyment and expectation of life. The figure climbs to 15 per cent for workers' compensation and other personal injury claims.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, James Spigelman, has said this meant "some people who are quite seriously injured are not able to sue at all".

In one case, the Court of Appeal cut the general damages for the representative basketballer and former casino dealer Deborah Grey from $127,000 to $9500, leading then-justice Simon Sheller to describe the impairment threshold and the sliding scale of payments as "cruel".

The Government's reply, tabled late on the final day of Parliament before the winter recess, says the costs implication of the recommendations "deserve careful consideration".

It says workers' compensation premiums would rise from 2.57 per cent of payroll to as high as 4.6 per cent: "This is not good business for NSW."

And raising the injury thresholds for motor vehicle accidents to 15 per cent would require a rise of $100 in the average green slip premium of $312.

The Government ruled out the inquiry's proposal to amend the cap on legal costs so that it applied to payouts of up to $50,000, rather than the present $100,000.

It also said the idea of a personal injury compensation tribunal was out of the question, because "subjective" judges rather than "objective" doctors would assess injuries.

The president of the NSW Law Society, June McPhie, said the changes had penalised those who recovered from accidents.

"The 15 per cent threshold is far too stringent and has resulted in many people, suffering injuries through no fault of their own, missing out on adequate compensation."

"If someone recovers it is not deemed a permanent injury, even if they spend months or years in rehabilitation. The young and the elderly and worse affected because they cannot even claim a loss of income."

The Law Society and the NSW Bar Association hope to make the changes an issue at the state election next March.

THE STORY SO FAR

? Pre 2002: Negligence payouts spiral, premiums rise sharply and insurance hard to obtain.

? 2002: National tort law changes put caps on payouts and lawyers' fees and make it harder to recover damages.

? 2004: Chief Justice James Spigelman questions whether changes have gone to far.

? 2006: NSW Government rejects proposals for change as claims drop 63 per cent.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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