Our 36 year old client was employed as a shopping assistant working on a causal basis for her local neighbourhood centre, and she sustained injury to her neck and right shoulder whilst carrying heavy shopping bags down the steps of a bus onto a footpath for an elderly client.
Our client reported her injury to her employer and made a claim for Workers Compensation which was accepted.
Her general practitioner referred her to a neurosurgeon who carried out a discectomy and fusion operation of her neck, which was paid for by the Workers Compensation insurer.
Following her surgery, our client was unable to perform her pre-injury duties due to her constant neck pain as well as the injury to her right shoulder caused by traumatic capsulitis.
Although the Workers Compensation insurer initially accepted liability and paid for our client’s medical treatment expenses, they subsequently denied liability for her ongoing weekly payments and we therefore had to lodge a claim in the Workers Compensation Commission to have her weekly benefits reinstated.
In preparation of this claim, we arranged for our client to be assessed by our medico-legal orthopaedic surgeon as well as our medico-legal functional and vocational assessor to assess whether our client had any capacity to return to work at all.
Following commencement of a weekly benefits claim in the Workers Compensation Commission, we successfully arranged for our client’s weekly benefits to be reinstated.
Once our client’s condition had stabilised following her surgery, our medico-legal doctor was then appointed to assess her level of whole person impairment as a result of her neck injury and consequential operation.
A claim for lump sum compensation was made and the Workers Compensation insurer agreed that our client sustained a 27% whole person impairment as a result of her neck injury and consequential surgery, and she received lump sum compensation based on that settlement which equates to a lump sum settlement of $49,500.
As our client’s agreed level of whole person impairment reached the 15% WPI threshold, and the accident occurred due to Occupational Health and Safety issues created by her employer, we were able to commence Work Injury Damages proceedings on behalf of our client.
We therefore arranged for our liability expert consultant engineer to conduct an interview and prepare a report in support of her claim and obtain updated medical evidence which enabled us to commence Work Injury Damages proceedings.
Following service of our Section 282 particulars and Pre-Filing Statement documents, we subsequently lodged an Application for Mediation of a Work Injury Damages claim in the Workers Compensation Commission.
Although our client was back at work for another employer with no significant ongoing wage loss, we were able to negotiate a successful resolution of our client’s Work Injury Damages claim at mediation for $155,000.
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