Findlay v Transport Accident Commission

[2025] VSCA 126

Victorian Court of Appeal

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For Australian Law.

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Accident Compensation
2. › Transport accident
3. › Serious injury
4. › Application for leave to commence common law proceeding
5. › Causation
6. › Whether probable causal connection between transport accident and colitis
7. › Medical opinion expressed in terms of possibility
8. › Whether court may infer probable cause from temporal connection, absence of alternative cause, and expert opinion of possible connection
9. › Transport Accident Act 1986 (Vic), s 93
1. Appeal
2. › Standard of appellate review
3. › Correctness standard
4. › Appeal from finding on documentary evidence where no credibility advantage enjoyed by trial judge
5. › Whether appellate court should give judgment which ought to have been given at first instance
1. Evidence
2. › Expert evidence
3. › Medical causation
4. › Opinion expressed in terms of possibility rather than probability
5. › Whether medical opinion of possible causal connection precludes finding of probable cause
6. › Temporal connection between accident and onset of condition
7. › Absence of alternative cause

Quick Take

Where medical experts express causation opinions in terms of possibility rather than probability, a court may still find causation established on the balance of probabilities based on the totality of the evidence, including temporal connection, absence of alternative causes, good health prior to the accident, and the physiological mechanisms postulated by the experts.