Edition No.43

This edition was issued on 16 February 2023

Welcome

Welcome to this special edition of the Personal Injury Commission News, which outlines two items from the Rule Committee. The first relates to rule changes arising from the Motor Accidents Injuries Amendment Act 2022. The second item provides information on two issues the Rule Committee is considering, relating to additional documents and document limitation.

I will be in touch with another edition of Personal Injury Commission News soon.

Regards,

Judge Gerard Phillips  
President

Rule Committee Update

On 30 January 2023, the Personal Injury Commission Rule Committee reached a majority vote by resolution to make the Personal Injury Commission (Amendment No 2) Rule 2023 (Rule Amendment).

The Rule Committee resolved to make rule changes to rules 94, 95 and 105 of the Personal Injury Commission Rules 2021 (PIC Rules), arising from the Motor Accident Injuries Amendment Act 2022 (MAI amending Act). See Rule Committee Resolution here.

As noted in PIC News Edition 42, there were several legislative amendments introduced by the MAI amending Act. Rules 94, 95 and 105 of the PIC Rules required amendment to ensure consistency with these legislative amendments, which commenced operation on 28 November 2022. In particular, this addresses the legislative amendments which resulted in the following changes to disputes in the Motor Accidents Division:
  • There is now no time limit for referring damages claims for assessment;
  • Damages claims can now be settled at any time, and
  • An internal review is now not required before a medical assessment in respect of a medical dispute about the degree of permanent impairment of the injured person.
There are several other amendments arising from the MAI amending Act which will commence operation on 1 April 2023, and we are working to address these amendments in our practice and procedure. 

As a result of the above amendments, the following Procedural Directions have been updated:

  1. Procedural Direction PIC6 – Medical Assessments
  2. Procedural Direction MA3 – Approval of damages settlement 
  3. Procedural Direction MA7 – Claims disputes 
The Rule Committee will convene in late February to discuss the Rule Committee Resolution #2 of 2022 in relation to the Document Limitation Issue and Additional Document Issue, together with the stakeholder feedback received.

We will provide further information about this, following the Rule Committee's deliberations.

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