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Injured worker dismissed for making complaint about unsafe working conditions

By on June 18, 2013 in Fraud & Abuse, Legal cases, OH&S, Shame files

Fact: many injured workers are routinely harshly and illegally sacked by their employers when they make a complaint about unsafe working conditions, when they threaten their employer with a genuine bullying complaint, or even when they simply happened to be injured at work and lodge a workcover claim. There certainly appears to be a toxic [...]

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Unfair dismissal – injured worker’s light duties were part of her contract

By on June 16, 2013 in Legal cases, Return to work, suitable employment, unfair dismissal, WorkCover Tas

Let’s face it, many injured workers are routinely sacked, simply because they were injured. Many employers will go to great lengths to find any possible excuse to sack an injured worker, even the most hard working and most loyal amongst us. What’s perhaps most disturbing is that many employers will play “doctor” and actually tell [...]

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Workcover insurers acted cruel & malicious – Canadian Court handed largest punitive damages ever

By on June 14, 2013 in Insurance companies, Legal cases, Shame files

A Canadian court has recently handed two workcover insurers the largest ever punitive damages penalty (in Canada) for their “abhorrent” treatment of an injured worker.In this legal case the judge chastised the insurance companies and awarded a record $4.9 million in punitive and aggravated damages to the injured worker for the ‘malicious’ behavior of the [...]

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Time limits for common law damages claim must be adhered to: a WA case

By on June 12, 2013 in Common Law, Legal cases, Legislation, WorkCover WA

The application of limitation periods applying to legal actions – common law damages claims- arising from work injuries must be very carefully adhered to, as this WA legal case has demonstrated. Time limits for commencing court actions for negligence (in common law damages claims) are subject to very complicated rules, and also vary from state [...]

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It’s now official- being a woman is a pre-existing condition: Workcover

By on June 10, 2013 in Legal cases, Shame files, WTF

This is one for the ladies! Workcover often try to deny injured workers’ claims on the basis of pre-existing physical or medical conditions that they conclude could have set the stage for or contributed to the injury. Unfortunately in these situations, the pre-existing condition could be unrelated to the injury. But because the injured worker [...]

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Work injury not serious enough for common law – exaggeration & surveillance

By on June 1, 2013 in Common Law, Legal cases, Surveillance, WorkSafe Vic

An injured worker was deemed not to suffer a serious injury, following video surveillance carried out over 22 days over several years, and based on the fact that the injured worker did not take as many painkillers as alleged and, hang on, based on her her movements at the Court, “which had been quite slow” [...]

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Lawyer loses bullying claim appeal

By on May 29, 2013 in Bullying & Stress, Common Law, Legal cases, WorkSafe Vic

In this high profile Victorian legal case against Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, a  Family Law Department Head Lawyer was found to have “unjustified perception of bullying” by the Court of Appeal, notwithstanding she suffered an accepted 30% total permanent psychiatric injury. This is a very good legal case to demonstrate that where an injured worker has [...]

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Federal Court judges under attack – Kangaroo Court of Australia

By on May 27, 2013 in Comcare, Legal cases, Media

The Kangaroo Court of Australia’s website features an interesting article about journalists (or the media) who need to be mindful they don’t “scandalise the court” (which is a criminal offence) when writing media articles about (usually high profile) legal cases. Scandalising the court basically infers to conduct which denigrates judges or the court so as [...]

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Another fraud accused injured worker entitled to workcover!

By on May 25, 2013 in Fraud & Abuse, Legal cases, Surveillance, WorkCover SA

You surely know by now that we are allergic to the abuse of the very costly and wasteful surveillance by workcover (Authorities, insurers, self-insurers and employers) of injured workers, portraying them all as fraudulent malingerers. As we have pointed out on numerous occasions, many genuinely injured workers are “routinely” accused of “fraud” and have their [...]

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SA Premier accused of unprofessional conduct as previous workcover lawyer

By on May 25, 2013 in Legal cases, WorkCover SA

A Disabled man has accused SA Premier Jay Weatherill of unprofessional conduct and will now seek Attorney-General John Rau’s permission to prosecute him. SA Premier Jay Weatherhill accused of unprofessional conduct as previous workcover lawyer Alexander David Mericka has filed action against Mr Weatherill in the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. His complaint against Mr Weatherill, [...]

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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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Workcover stress claims and reasonable administrative action

By on May 13, 2013 in Bullying & Stress, Legal cases, Stress Claims

Further to the new proposed anti-bullying laws, which would include clarification as to what bullying is not – that is, reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner is not bullying – we dug up a few interesting, recent legal cases to illustrate what Tribunals and Courts currently deem what is reasonable or unreasonable [...]

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No need for pain medication – workers compensation denied!

By on May 12, 2013 in Comcare, Legal cases, Pain, WTF

In this -painful- legal case, an injured worker has been denied workers compensation for a manual handling injury sustained at Australia Post, after it was found she was not taking medication for pain relief! OMG! No need for pain medication – workers compensation denied! Background of the case A courier driver for Australia Post sustained [...]

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