A worker who acquired an entitlement to bring common law proceedings under s.135A(2D) of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 before the 12 November 1997 amendments is not required to comply with the new pre-litigation conditions in s.135A(2DE). The entitlement conferred by s.135A(2D) upon the employer's failure to respond to an impairment assessment application within 60 days is a substantive right protected by the presumption against retrospective legislation. The question of whether the same protection applies where an unfavourable impairment determination (less than 30%) was made before 12 November 1997 was expressly left open.
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