New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Rehabilitation adequacy

Legal area

Court

29 Apr 2014

Scanlan v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2014] NZACC 100
Court

District Court

The appeal was allowed because the VIMA was procedurally and substantively flawed: the confirmed job types all required computer competency which the claimant had only minimal, non-reinforced training and no access to a computer to practice; that rehabilitation shortcoming was material to the ability to perform the upheld occupations and made the vocational independence finding premature and unsafe, requiring quashing and reversal of the prior determinations.
20 Dec 2013

Crook v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2013] NZACC 418
Court

District Court

The Court preferred and adopted the opinion of the appointed vocational independence medical assessor (Dr Ruttenberg) as sufficiently detailed and supported by the medical and rehabilitation record; there was no objective medical evidence corroborating Dr Black's view that chronic pain prevented concentration or full-time work in the approved occupations, and incomplete/ongoing rehabilitation did not preclude a finding of vocational independence; therefore the review decision upholding vocational independence was affirmed and the appeal dismissed.
17 May 2013

Anderson v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2013] NZACC 141
Court

District Court

On the totality of evidence, including a detailed vocational assessment identifying transferable skills and medical opinions from Dr Kangi and corroborating opinion from claimant's expert Dr Nicholson that at least three identified job types were medically sustainable, there was clear and compelling evidence that the claimant was vocationally independent as of 10 August 2011 and the Corporation's determination was justified; the reviewer did not err in refusing costs.
25 Sept 2006

Coombs v Accident Compensation Corporation

Citation

[2006] NZACC 230
Court

District Court

The appellant failed to produce cogent evidence that the occupational or medical assessments were flawed; job detail sheets are non-statutory guides and differences between older and newer templates did not invalidate the assessor judgments; factual findings by the reviewer stand and the ACC decision finding vocational independence is upheld.

New Zealand Case Law

Scanlan v Accident Compensation Corporation

Crook v Accident Compensation Corporation

Anderson v Accident Compensation Corporation

Coombs v Accident Compensation Corporation