Where a serious injury applicant advances an alternative paragraph (a) case that the proven organic injury persists and its organically based consequences are themselves serious (even if non-organic features have also developed), the trial judge must address that alternative case and cannot simply reject the application on the basis that the overall presentation lacks a substantial organic basis. Under paragraph (c), the statutory analysis requires first identifying a mental or behavioural disturbance or disorder before assessing permanence and severity; an argument that inability to work for non-organic reasons must logically constitute a severe disturbance or disorder reverses the statutory sequence and will not succeed.
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