Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) Where WorkCover
WA, the employer, or the insurer has paid compensation or expenses to a worker
or dependant and that person was not lawfully entitled to that payment or to
any part of the amount of that payment, WorkCover WA, the employer, or the
insurer, as the case may be, may apply for an order of an arbitrator that
compensation or expenses so paid be refunded, and an arbitrator has
jurisdiction to hear and determine such an application and, subject to
subsection (3), to make any order in relation thereto or any part thereof as
the arbitrator considers appropriate in the circumstances.
(2) Without limiting
the orders that may be made under subsection (1), the arbitrator may, instead
of making an order for a refund, order any person who the arbitrator
determines was liable for the whole or any part of the compensation or
expenses to reimburse the person who paid the compensation or expenses.
(3) If the payment of
compensation or expenses was in accordance with an order of an arbitrator, the
arbitrator hearing and determining an application under subsection (1) may
make an order for a refund only if satisfied that the claim for the payment
was fraudulent or made without proper justification.
(4) If —
(a) the
arbitrator makes or, apart from subsection (3), would have made an order for a
refund of an amount of compensation or expenses; or
(b)
makes an order under subsection (2) in relation to such an amount,
the amount is to be
excluded from any determinations of the claims experience of the employer for
the purposes of calculating the premium payable by the employer for a policy
of insurance.
[Section 71 amended: No. 48 of 1993 s. 28(1); No.
42 of 2004 s. 57; No. 31 of 2011 s. 94.]