North Star Law

purple-phone-icon-png-5

(02) 9188 7875

Calls are now free from any payphone in Australia

Menu

Workers Compensation and Work Injury Damages Claims

If you suffered a work related injury in NSW then you may be entitled to workers compensation benefits and potentially, work injury damages.

The work related injury could be physical or psychological.

Workers Compensation

The NSW Workers Compensation Scheme provides injured workers with the following entitlements:

  • Weekly payments for loss of wages
  • Medical, hospital and rehabilitation expenses
  • Lump sum compensation for permanent impairment

A claim for lump sum compensation will depend on the level of your permanent impairment. To be entitled to lump sum compensation:

  • For physical injuries, permanent impairment must be assessed at 11% or greater.
  • For psychological injuries, permanent impairment must be assessed at 15% or greater.

Exempt workers, including police officers, paramedics and fire fighters are not subject to the permanent impairment threshold for physical injuries.

In the event of a work related death, the following entitlements are available to claim:

  • Lump sum death benefit.
  • Weekly payments for each dependent child up to the age of 16 (or 21 of they are in full-time education).
  • Reasonable funeral expenses.

Work Injury Damages

If your work related injury resulted from your employer’s negligence and you have been assessed as having at least 15% permanent impairment then you may be able to claim work injury damages.

A workers’ permanent impairment must be assessed by an authorised permanent impairment assessor and the insurer must agree to that assessment. Otherwise, permanent impairment must be determined by an authorised assessor appointed by the Personal Injury Commission.

A claim for work injury damages can only be settled after all statutory lump sum entitlements for permanent impairment are finalised.

Damages payable in a claim for work injury damages, includes:

  • past and future loss of income
  • loss of superannuation contributions

A work injury damages settlement extinguishes all further entitlements to workers compensation benefits associated with that injury.

There are strict time limits and pre-litigation requirements that must be complied with to bring a work injury damages claim.