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About WorkcoverVictim

I was assaulted by a large patient whilst working as a nurse . I underwent numerous major shoulder reconstructions and suffered near fatal complications. I am left with an extremely painful and irreparable dominant arm. This site was born out of my sheer frustration, anger and grief regarding the workcover system where all is not made clear, where the waters are very murky, and when the chips are down, the very people who are responsible for duty of care and support simply choose to ignore you, the injured worker. I dedicate this site to all injured workers who have been abused by the adversarial workcover compensation system. May they never give up, may they fight like warriors for their legitimate rights, and -most importantly- may they hold onto their dignity, self-respect, self-esteem and sanity; and may they WIN!

Author Archive | WorkcoverVictim

Injured workers are all drug addicts – WTF

By on May 31, 2013 in Case manager (follies), Medication, Pain, WTF

You may have recently read that Comcare is cracking down on injured workers’ profiteering from its generous pharmaceutical benefits and on workers’ compensation claims being used to fund drug habits. You also may have had your pain medication “reviewed” by your workcover case manager, and wondered what is going on. Well, we had a chat [...]

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Reckless injured worker’s common law damages reduced by 70%

By on May 24, 2013 in Common Law, Legal cases, Return to work, suitable employment, WorkSafe Vic

A couple of weeks ago I came across this bizarre but interesting Victorian legal case, whereby the Victorian Supreme Court decided (in 2011) to reduce common law damages awarded to a seriously injured worker by a whopping 70% -because the injured worker – who suffers a major back injury – continued to “recklessly” work on [...]

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NSW injured workers can still make a further claim for impairment for that same injury – new legal case

By on May 22, 2013 in Legal cases, Legislation, WorkCover NSW

More good news for NSW injured workers! In this recent (20 May 2013) legal NSW case, the Workers Compensation Commission’s verdict in the case of Di Matteo v RDM Ceramics Pty Limited essentially means that if an injured worker has made ANY type of claim before to 19/6/12 then he/she can still make a further [...]

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Federal Court ruled AAT required to explain why it preferred the IME’s evidence

By on May 18, 2013 in Comcare, Legal cases, Medical Exam (IME)

Have you ever wondered why some judges or arbitrators “prefer” the evidence given from one particular doctor over another? And what if they prefer the evidence given by a highly biased insurance doctor over the evidence of for example an expert specialist who knows the injured worker well and who has treated the injured worker?  [...]

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Medical Panels must provide clear reasons – Supreme Court Vic

By on May 17, 2013 in Legal cases, Medical Panel

A decision of the Medical Panel is usually legally binding on the parties and a court is generally required to follow its decision. Therefore great care and consideration is needed in determining whether to refer a matter to a Medical Panel. In February this year we posted an article titled “Beware that Medical Panel opinions [...]

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Injured workers are humiliated and disrespected – NSW Study

By on May 4, 2013 in Articles & Research, WorkCover NSW, Workers compensation

Further to our recent article “Workcover compensation schemes impede recovery from injury“, featuring one of the largest Australian studies -undertaken at Monash (VIC)- which found that workers compensation schemes impede recovery from injury, we continued to look for Australian studies about injured workers and found another important study conducted in NSW, titled Injured workers” experiences [...]

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Deed of release often used in settling workcover cases- what are they?

By on April 29, 2013 in Common Law, Legal cases, Resources, Tips & Tricks

Deeds of release are often used in settling workcover cases  and common law claims between employers (or their representing insurance companies and defense lawyers) and injured workers — but what are they really? In this article, we try to discuss what deed are, how they’re written and provide very important tips on their use for [...]

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Workcover compensation schemes impede recovery from injury

By on April 28, 2013 in Articles & Research, Compensation, Psych

Further to our recent article “Being on workcover leads to serious negative side effects”, we stumbled on one of the largest Australian studies -undertaken at Monash (VIC)- which found that workers compensation schemes basically impede recovery from injury. Workcover compensation schemes impede recovery from injury According to one of the largest Australian studies to investigate [...]

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Recoveries of money under workcover

By on April 27, 2013 in Common Law, Legislation, Stories, Tips & Tricks, WTF

We recently received the following inquiry and the following horror story from two separate injured workers, both cases basically revolve around the fact that -yes- Workcover can recover compensation paid to a worker from a third party, where the third party has caused or contributed to the injury occurring. As Carol kindly explained, if you [...]

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When has the employer done enough to avoid liability for psychiatric injury claim?

By on April 15, 2013 in Bullying & Stress, Common Law, Legal cases, Psych, WorkCover WA

Further to our popular “stress claims” topic, and the highlighted, very stressful uphill battle for most psychologically injured workers face in having to prove their injury was caused at work and that “reasonable action was taken in an unreasonable manner or unreasonable action taken in a reasonable manner”, which obviously will be fought tooth and [...]

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Stress claims: Workcover or a separation package?

By on April 14, 2013 in Bullying & Stress, Legislation, Psych, Resources, Tips & Tricks

Further to some to some interesting and intense commentary regarding injured worker “A” who experienced bullying and sexual harassment in her workplace and has been offered a “deal” consisting of three months salary and a quick and presumably very quiet separation, we looked a little deeper into the pro’s and con’s of going down the [...]

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The workcover injury claim form – the way it really is

By on April 12, 2013 in Fun

Workcover is a very dark and dangerous area of law. Rights that we, injured sods, expect as citizens are trampled on.  If you have been hurt for awhile, you probably know that already. As we have stated a zillion times, in the workcover system, medical care is routinely denied and benefits, such as home help, [...]

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Surveillance shows injured worker “exaggerates” symptoms however court finds no evidence

By on April 11, 2013 in Legal cases, Surveillance, WorkCover WA

An injured worker who was allegedly found to have exaggerated her symptoms based on “almighty”  workcover surveillance was, thankfully, not required to refund the weekly payments paid to her ordered by some “review officer”,  as there was not enough evidence that she actually exaggerated, the WA Compensation Magistrate’s Court ruled (in 2006). However, based on [...]

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Being on workcover leads to serious negative side effects

By on April 10, 2013 in Compensation, Psych, WorkCover

Evidence suggests that injured workers who receive compensation have poorer outcomes than people with similar injuries who don’t receive compensation. However, we would like to rephrase that to: “evidence suggests that injured workers who are on the workcover system have poorer health outcomes, and suffer from major workcover inflicted illnesses (which we like to call workcoveritis) [...]

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Top 5 workcover misconceptions

By on April 8, 2013 in Stuff, Workers compensation

Everyone has opinions on what workcover is. Some are correct, but most are in fact misconceptions, most often sensationalised by our biased media. Everyone may have heard of someone that tried to get away with milking the workcover system.  Most of these (few) people are caught through routine investigation, and their cases get resolved.  The [...]

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Employer and workcover QLD blame injured worker for own carelessness & use Facebook pictures to defeat K300 claim

By on April 5, 2013 in Legal cases, Surveillance, WorkCover QLD

In June 2008, 28-year-old 1st year apprentice electrician was “roughing in” power cables to a QLD apartment, following an improvisation procedure to stop the cables being forced up against sharp framing edges and risking insulation damage. This improvisation method used offcuts of steel U-shaped channel that unfortunately exposed a razor-sharp edge that was to become [...]

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