Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017

A medical assessor who declines to make an assessment of the degree of permanent impairment of an injured person until satisfied that impairment has become permanent must make an interim assessment of permanent impairment if the assessment is for the purpose of determining entitlement to statutory benefits under Division 3.3 (Weekly payments of statutory benefits to injured persons) or 3.4 (Statutory benefits for treatment and care).

An interim assessment of permanent impairment is an assessment that it is probable that the injured person will have a degree of permanent impairment of greater than a particular percentage (the minimum degree of permanent impairment).

The degree of permanent impairment of the injured person is deemed to be greater than the minimum degree of permanent impairment that is assessed on an interim assessment, but only for the purposes of the statutory benefits payable to the injured person under Division 3.3 or 3.4.

An interim assessment operates only until a final assessment is made.

An interim assessment does not constitute an assessment of the degree of permanent impairment for the purposes of a claim for damages.

A payment of statutory benefits under Part 3 made to an injured person before a final assessment of permanent impairment is made and that the injured person would not have been entitled to had the final assessment been made before the payment was made cannot be recovered by the insurer.