A worker has proven a causal link between his life-threatening heart condition and a crush injury sustained at work 15 years earlier. Meanwhile, a worker's widow has been awarded lump sum compensation, despite this benefit not being available to her at the time of the worker's death.
In a long-running dispute, a tribunal has rejected a travelling worker's whooping cough and stroke claim, after being forced to disregard evidence of whooping cough infection rates in the relevant region.
A tribunal has ruled that a worker's work tasks significantly contributed to him suffering heart failure, in the absence of proof ruling out the possibility.
An obese worker has been awarded the cost of gastric bypass surgery to manage a work injury, after a tribunal found diet and exercise would not solve her weight problems.
A worker has been allowed to combine his degrees of impairment from his fall injuries, abnormal gait and medication to surpass the serious injury threshold, while another worker has received a lump sum boost for multiple injuries arising from the same trauma.
A worker's severe contact dermatitis, resulting from exposure to lubricants, limited "some" rather than "many" of his activities of daily living, a tribunal has found in halving his degree of whole person impairment to below the serious injury threshold.
A tribunal has stressed that blocking injured workers' benefits can have a devastating impact on families, in using its discretionary powers to continue, with conditions, weekly payments to a man who was sacked for misconduct.
Future surgery and medical services do not need to be locked in to an injured worker's treatment plan to gain pre-approval, a tribunal has found in identifying medical procedures that constitute surgery for workers' comp purposes.
An injured worker's "personality vulnerability" is not a pre-existing condition that reduces his compensable degree of impairment, a tribunal has ruled in a case involving a workplace prank gone wrong.
A recent decision in South Australia's highest court has enlarged the circumstances in which injured workers' impairments can be combined for compensation purposes, while the Queensland Court of Appeal has found that applying for statutory benefits out of time doesn't block access to damages.
