O'Brien Glass Industries Ltd v Pisani

[2019] VSCA 61

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Accident Compensation
2. › Weekly payments
3. › Incapacity for work
4. › Recurrence of soft tissue injury
5. › Whether compensable incapacity can persist after injury has fully resolved
6. › Ongoing susceptibility to recurrence
7. › Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic), ss 5, 82, 93
1. Accident Compensation
2. › Medical panels
3. › Judicial review of medical panel opinion
4. › Adequacy of reasons
5. › Whether sufficient to expose process of reasoning
6. › Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), s 313(2)
1. Accident Compensation
2. › Medical panels
3. › Judicial review of medical panel opinion
4. › Construction of panel reasons
5. › Whether reasons should be construed like a statute or contract

Quick Take

Under the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic), a worker's compensable incapacity for work can persist after the physical component of a soft tissue injury has fully resolved, where there remains an ongoing susceptibility (propensity for re-injury) to further recurrence. The broader question of whether incapacity can exist after an injury has resolved without any ongoing susceptibility was expressly left open.