New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MOTOR ACCIDENT INJURIES ACT 2017 - SECT 1.7

1.7 Determination of threshold degree of permanent impairment of injured person who suffers both physical and psychological/psychiatric injuries

(1) This section applies for the purposes of a determination under this Act of whether the degree of permanent impairment of an injured person as a result of an injury caused by a motor accident is greater than 10% (the
"impairment threshold" ).

(2) If an injured person receives both a physical injury and a psychological or psychiatric injury arising out of the same motor accident--

(a) the degree of permanent impairment that results from the physical injury is to be assessed separately from the degree of permanent impairment that results from the psychological or psychiatric injury (and accordingly those separate degrees of injury are not to be added together for the purposes of the impairment threshold), and

(b) the injured person is taken to have a degree of permanent impairment greater than the impairment threshold if either the degree of impairment caused by physical injuries or the degree of impairment caused by psychological or psychiatric injuries is greater than 10%.

Note : If there is more than one physical injury those injuries will still be assessed together as one injury, but separately from any psychological or psychiatric injury. Similarly, if there is more than one psychological or psychiatric injury those psychological or psychiatric injuries will be assessed together as one injury, but separately from any physical injury.