Edition 8 - February 2021

Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of Towards the PIC.

We are now only three weeks away from opening the Personal Injury Commission on 1 March 2021.

This edition includes updates about the PIC Rules, which have been published today, registration information for the roadshow sessions we are running for the legal and insurance professions which commence this week, plus reminders about upcoming system outages.

I will provide further updates for you in the lead up to commencement on 1 March.

Sincerely

Judge Gerard Phillips

New PIC Rules Finalised and Published

I am very pleased to announce today that the Personal Injury Commission Rules which were made by the PIC Rule Committee have been finalised and published.

Please access the rules here.

A great amount of detailed thought and reflection has gone into the creation of these Rules and we have received a lot of very helpful feedback from stakeholders during the drafting and consultation process. The feedback was carefully considered in determining the final, published version.

I do appreciate that it is one thing to draft Rules, and it is another thing to see how they operate in practice. I have no doubt that there will be feedback on the implementation and practical application of the Rules when they are in operation from 1 March. I welcome your feedback via your representatives on the PIC reference groups. The reference groups and their constituents are listed here in this earlier edition of Towards the PIC

The Rule Committee have undertaken to review the Rules within the coming 12 months to ensure they are working as intended.

Please familiarise yourselves with the new Rules to gain an understanding of how matters lodged with the PIC from 1 March will be managed.

Roadshows for the Insurance and Legal Professions Commence Tomorrow

The PIC is commencing a virtual roadshow for the insurance and legal professions tomorrow, to ensure stakeholders in these cohorts are briefed about the changes and well placed to know what to expect from 1 March.

The roadshow sessions, which will be presented by the PIC’s Motor Accidents and Workers Compensation Division Heads, cover why the PIC is being established, what it will do, the benefits it will deliver, what is and isn’t changing and what insurers and legal representatives will need to do differently from 1 March. They also include information about technology changes to be aware of and PIC’s new contact details. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

If you are yet to register to attend a session, I would encourage you to do so as the sessions will provide valuable context for you ahead of launch on 1 March. Please register here.

Reminder: Upcoming Systems Outages

The Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) and Workers Compensation Commission (WCC) case management systems and portals will be updated in the lead up to commencement of the PIC. The changes are primarily cosmetic, to ensure that the systems and templates reflect the new Personal Injury Commission branding and language.

To enable our technology team to make the updates required, both the DRS and WCC systems will be taken down at various times during February. Please take note of the outage windows listed below so that you can plan around them.

WCC Case Management System

The Commission’s electronic case management system will shut down:

Thursday 25 February 6pm – Monday 1 March 9am

You will not be able to access Comcase/MyFiles or the Online Portal to upload documents on the evening of Thursday 25 February, for the whole of Friday 26 February and over the weekend.  Parties will also not be able to access their matters or lodge documents through the Portal.

Refer to this Workers Compensation Commission e-bulletin for more information on how to minimise the impact to business.

DRS Case Management System

The DRS case management system, including the Insurer Portal, Legal Portal and Claimant Portal will shut down over two weekends:

• Friday 12 February 5pm – Monday 15 February 9am​
• Friday 26 February 5pm – Monday 1 March 9am​

You will not be able to access the portals during these timeframes, so please consider this when planning your electronic interactions with DRS.

Have a question about the PIC? 

If you have a question you would like to ask about the PIC, please email us at [email protected]

Missed earlier editions of Towards the PIC? 

If you’re new to our distribution list for this newsletter, I’d encourage you to view the earlier editions. Access them here.

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