Good News for Workers: Hockbaum & Whitton Decided Favourably

Seriously injured workers throughout NSW have been anxiously awaiting the Court of Appeal Decisions in these 2 matters.  The President of the Workers Compensation Commission reversed the Arbitrator’s decision in both matters effectively disentitling workers to weekly benefits of compensation after 260 weeks of benefits even though they were later found to exceed the 20% Whole Person Impairment threshold which should have meant their benefits continued beyond 260 weeks. This meant many seriously injured workers missed out on long periods of weekly benefits of compensation and were often left on Social Security.

 

Today the NSW Court of Appeal overturned the President’s ruling meaning that such workers were entitled to continue on weekly benefits beyond 260 weeks even if they were assessed years after their benefits were cut off.  Effectively this means that many such workers will be entitled to back pay, some for many years.

The full decision can be accessed here.