New South Wales Consolidated Acts

SPORTING INJURIES INSURANCE ACT 1978 - SECT 24

24 Assessment of injuries

(1) Where the Authority receives an application under section 19, the Authority may refer the application and any notice of injury to which it relates to a medical panel or a referee--

(a) in any case--for a report in respect of the injury or death to which the application relates, and

(b) in the case of an application under section 19 (1)--for an assessment under subsection (4).

(2) The Authority may, by notice served on an applicant for a benefit under section 25, require the applicant to attend before a medical panel or referee, at a time and place specified in the notice, for the purpose of an examination by the medical panel or referee.

(3) An applicant who--

(a) without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the requirements of a notice served on the applicant under subsection (2), or

(b) in the course of being examined by a medical panel or referee, obstructs the medical panel or any of its members or the referee, as the case may be,

shall, for the purposes of subsection (4), be deemed not to have made himself or herself available for examination by a medical panel or referee and to have withdrawn his or her application.

(4) When an applicant for a benefit under this Act makes himself or herself available for examination by a medical panel or referee to which or whom his or her application has been referred under subsection (1), the medical panel or referee shall--

(a) make an assessment that specifies--

(i) the nature of the injury in respect of which the application was made, and

(ii) where the injury is described in Table A of Schedule 1 by reference to a prescribed percentage or is described in Part 1 of Table B of that Schedule--the degree, having regard to subsection (5), of the permanent loss, expressed in terms of a percentage, of any use or other capacity, referred to in that Schedule, suffered by the applicant as a consequence of the injury, and

(b) forward the assessment to the Authority.

(5) In making an assessment under subsection (4), the medical panel or referee shall--

(a) assess any loss of use or other capacity suffered by the applicant as a percentage of the relevant use or other capacity enjoyed by the applicant immediately before the injury was suffered, whether or not the applicant then was, or might have been, subject to any disability, and

(b) report in the assessment upon any relevant disability to which, in the opinion of the medical panel or referee, as the case may be, the person was, or may have been, subject immediately before the injury was suffered.

(5A) If the applicant has refused medical treatment that the medical panel or referee considers would be likely to result in an improvement in the applicant's condition, the assessment under subsection (4) may be made on the assumption that the improvement likely to result from the refused treatment has in fact occurred, but only if the medical panel or referee is satisfied that the applicant's refusal of the treatment is unreasonable.

(6) An applicant who attends before a medical panel or referee in compliance with a notice served on the applicant under subsection (2) is entitled to be paid by the Authority--

(a) the amount of any wages lost by the applicant, and

(b) the cost to the applicant of any fares, travelling expenses and maintenance necessarily and reasonably incurred by the applicant,

by reason of attending before the medical panel or referee, as the case may be.

(7) For the purposes of this Act, an assessment under subsection (4) by a medical panel of the degree of an injury in respect of which an amount of money is prescribed in Table A of Schedule 1 shall be conclusive.