Western Australian Current Acts

WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 146O

146O .         Duties of panel after making assessment

        (1)         Subject to section 146P, the assessment is to be made as soon as is practicable after the day on which a medical examination of the worker concerned is carried out by the approved medical specialist panel.

        (2)         An approved medical specialist panel is required to give to the Registrar in writing in accordance with the regulations —

            (a)         a report of the worker’s degree of impairment, including details of the assessment and reasons justifying the assessment; and

            (b)         a certificate specifying the worker’s degree of impairment.

        (3)         The Registrar is to give copies of the report and certificate to the arbitrator who referred the question to the panel, the worker concerned, and the employer of the worker concerned, within 7 days after the day on which the Registrar receives them.

        (4)         The assessment is —

            (a)         final and binding on the worker, the worker’s employer, on any dispute resolution authority, court or tribunal hearing a matter in which any such determination is relevant and on any other approved medical specialist panel; and

            (b)         conclusive evidence as to the matters determined.

        (5)         An assessment of an approved medical specialist panel is not —

            (a)         to be vitiated because of any informality or want of form; or

            (b)         subject to an appeal.

        (6)         A decision of an approved medical specialist panel or anything done under this Act in the process of coming to a decision of an approved medical specialist panel is not amenable to judicial review.

        (7)         In subsection (6) —

        decision of an approved medical specialist panel means an opinion, assessment, or other decision of an approved medical specialist panel that is relevant to the operation of Part III Division 2A, Part IXA or clause 18A.

        (8)         If a factual error is apparent on the face of either of the documents described in subsection (2), the Registrar may reject the document and require the approved medical specialist panel to replace it with a correct document which the Registrar is to give to each of the recipients of the document that contained the error.

        [Section 146O inserted: No. 42 of 2004 s. 109; amended: No. 16 of 2005 s. 19; No. 31 of 2011 s. 75; No. 8 of 2018 s. 15.]