The Court dismissed NRMA's judicial review challenge to a PIC Review Panel decision assessing 12% whole person impairment, holding that the Panel exercised collective judgment notwithstanding that only the two medical assessors conducted the physical re-examination. The Court found that the Panel's reasons adequately distinguished between the medical assessors' Examination Report and the Panel's own findings, and that a post-examination teleconference involving all three members supported the inference of collective deliberation. On adequacy of reasons, the Court held that the Panel sufficiently addressed NRMA's causation arguments regarding delayed right shoulder pathology by reference to contemporaneous medical records, and that the finding of co-contraction indicating sub-maximal effort in the cervical spine was not inconsistent with the broader finding of no abnormal illness behaviour, as co-contraction is an organic finding distinct from exaggeration.
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