Tag Archives: notice-of-assessment

Qld Work Injury Claims & the 5% Threshold

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Brisbane & Gold Coast No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain recent decision impact on work injury claims in Qld.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain the impact of Trumino v Coles on work injury claims. Gold Coast & Brisbane No Win No Fee Lawyers.

Good News for those Injured at Work During 15 October 2013 & 30 January 2015

If you’ve been injured at work during the period 15 October 2013 and 30 January 2015, then your work injury claim is subject to the 5% threshold. What this means is that you cannot bring a Common Law claim for your work injury unless you achieve a degree of permanent impairment(DPI) for your injury of over 5%.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Explain the Degree of Permanent Impairment (DPI)

What is a degree of permanent impairment or DPI ? Taking your body as 100% functioning, permanent impairment is basically the impairment or loss of function suffered because of an injury. So for example, doctors may assess you as suffering a 7% loss of bodily function because of your work injury – then your DPI is 7%.

How doctors assess permanent impairment of functioning caused by an injury is based on a special guide used to assess DPI for work injuries in Queensland, namely, GEPI (Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment).  And GEPI is primarily based on the international guide for assessing permanent impairment of functioning caused by injury, the AMA Guides.Continue reading→

No Workers’ Compensation Claim Could Lose You Lump Sum Compensation

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No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain how not bringing a Workers’ Compensation claim can result in the loss of lump sum compensation. Gold Coast & Brisbane Experts in Workplace Injury Claims, servicing all Queensland.

Did you know that if you suffer an injury at work, resulting in a degree of permanent impairment (DPI), you have a right to statutory lump sum compensation?

Explaining Degree of Permanent Impairment (DPI) in Workplace Injury Claims

You’re considered to have sustained DPI where you have ongoing symptomatology from your work injury which impairs your ability to undertake your every living activities. DPI in work injury claims is assessed as a percentage under the Guide for Evaluating Permanent Impairment also known as GEPI.

After your work injury stabilises, if you’re injury is assessed by a GEPI trained medical expert as resulting in more than 0% DPI, then you will be entitled to a lump sum payment of compensation. You will have this entitlement no matter who was at fault for your work injury, as long as your injury was sustained in the course of your work, on your way to or from work or during a work break. It is called “statutory lump sum compensation”, because your entitlement to such compensation is pursuant to legislation, namely, the Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation Act 2003.Continue reading→

Notices of Assessment in Workers’ Compensation & Work Injury Claims

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Gold Coast and Brisbane Personal Injury Lawyers explain Notices of Assessment in Queensland work injury claims

It’s imperative you seek advice from No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers before making any response to a Notice of Assessment in your work injury claim.

At the end of your workers’ compensation claim for work injury, the workers’ compensation insurer may issue you with a document called a “Notice of Assessment”. This document will list all your injuries sustained in your work accident and accord a degree of permanent impairment assessed by a doctor for each injury, and a total of the degree of permanent impairment assessed for all your injuries.

What is “degree of permanent impairment” for a work injury?  

Taking your body’s overall functioning as 100%, a doctor trained in permanent impairment assessments will evaluate the degree your work injury has impaired your bodily function.  The degree of permanent impairment is assessed as a percentage and is based on the impact the injury has on your capacity to undertake your everyday living activities. For example, your back injury sustained at work, may be assessed as resulting in permanent impairment of your capacity to undertake your everyday normal living activities of 10%.
Assessment of permanent impairment for work injuries in Queensland is undertaken in accordance with the Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, or “GEPI” as it is also known. Doctors who undertake these assessments must be accredited in evaluating permanent impairment under this Guide.
So at the end of your workers’ compensation claim, Workcover or the self insurer, will have your work injury reviewed by a GEPI trained doctor and ask for their assessment of what degree of permanent impairment your work injury has caused. The workers’ compensation insurer then issues you with a Notice of Assessment stipulating the degree of permanent impairment assessed.

Statutory Lump Sum Offers of Compensation with the Notice of Assessment

If the degree of permanent impairment stated in your Notice of Assessment is stated as more than 0%,  then you will be made an offer of lump sum compensation when receiving your Notice of Assessment.  The higher the degree of impairment, the greater the lump sum offer will be.  Normally, the offer is around $3,000 for each 1% of permanent impairment assessed (eg. 5% degree of permanent impairment will result in an offer of approximately $15,000).

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Lump Sum Offers in Workers’ Compensation Claims

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Personal Injury Lawyers expert in workplace injury claims explain Lump Sum Statutory Offers for workplace injuries.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Brisbane and Gold Coast – Speak to us before making any decision to accept lump sum compensation for your work injury.

At the end of your workers’ compensation claim you may receive a Notice of Assessment from the workers’ compensation insurer allocating a permanent impairment  percentage for your work injury. If you don’t know what a Notice of Assessment in a work injury claim is and would like to know more, please read our website post on Notices of Assessment at the end of your workers’ compensation claim.

Notices of Assessment & Permanent Impairment for Work Injury

Permanent Impairment is a percentage of impairment of bodily functioning allocated to an injury. Looking at your body as 100% functioning, an injury can impair your body’s normal functioning to a certain extent.  This impairment in functioning is assessed by trained medical experts and accorded a percentage. The more serious the injury and its impact on your ability to function normally, the higher the percentage of permanent impairment accorded to the injury. For example, you may have sustained a back injury at work and doctors may assess your back injury as causing you a loss of bodily functioning of 10%.

Permanent Impairment in work injury claims in Queensland is assessed under the Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment or GEPI as it is more commonly called.

When Statutory Lump Sum Offers are Made by Workcover or Workers’ Compensation Insurer

If your work injury has been assessed as suffering permanent impairment of more than 0% in your Notice of Assessment issued by Workcover (or the self-insurer) at the end of your workers’ compensation claim, you will be Continue reading→

Workers’ Compensation & Work Injury Lawyers

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Work Injury & Workplace Injury Personal Injury Lawyers. 24/7Free legal advice. No Win No Fee. Servicing Qld with offices in Brisbane & Gold Coast.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers are work injury & workplace injury experts. 24/7 service to all Qld with Offices in Brisbane & Gold Coast.

As personal injury lawyers, we see the impact work injuries can have on a worker and their family. So, it is fortunate that in Queensland we have a Scheme where injured workers are able to receive benefits to assist with their medical treatment and rehabilitation and to pay their lost wages whilst they are unable to work due to their work injury.  This Scheme is called “Workers’ Compensation”.

Our Workers’ Compensation Scheme in Queensland is a no-fault based scheme. This means, whether you think you have caused or contributed to your work injury occurring does not matter. You are still entitled to claim workers’ compensation for your work injury no matter fault.

In Queensland, Workers’ Compensation is available to anyone injured in the course of their work, on their way to or from work or during a work break.

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