New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Medical assessment under ama guides

Legal area

Court

27 Nov 2003

E v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2003] NZACC 306
Court

District Court

Because the assessor Dr Fenwicke was a duly appointed medical assessor who applied the AMA Guides and her supplementary report showed PTSD had been taken into account, and because there was no compelling evidence from an appropriately qualified expert to rebut her assessment, the Court accepted her impairment assessment which, after deduction of the prior lump sum, left the combined whole person impairment below the 10% threshold required for an independence allowance.
14 May 2003

Florance v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2003] NZACC 90
Court

District Court

The Court held that the appellant’s severe back pain is causally connected to the 1981 injury and that the incontinence episodes are consequentially caused by that pain/injury; the Reviewer was wrong to find no evidential causal link and the matter must be reassessed by a different approved assessor taking the incontinence into account.
9 May 2003

Te Huia v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2003] NZACC 82
Court

District Court

Section 442 requires deduction of the percentage for which a lump sum was paid from the assessed whole person impairment; applying that statutory deduction to the assessed 27% whole person impairment (Dr Porteous) minus the 29% lump sum percentage yields a residual below the 10% threshold, therefore no entitlement to an independence allowance exists.