A new Personal Injury Commission is operating in NSW from March 1, designed to more simply resolve disputes between compensation claimants and insurers. The RMB Compensation Division explains how the commission will operate.
If you have been injured at work or in a car accident, you may be unhappy with the insurer’s response to your claim. Your claim may have been denied, the amount offered by the insurance company may not reflect your correct entitlements, or perhaps the insurer has refused to pay for treatment.
Previously, worker’s compensation disputes were handled by the Workers Compensation Commission.
Claims arising from disputes regarding claims as a result of motor vehicle accidents were handled by one or more of a number of bodies including the Dispute Resolution Service (DRS), Claims Assessment Resolution Service (CARS), the Medical Assessment Service (MAS) or under the umbrella of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA).
The process could be overly complicated. To rectify this, from March 1 this year the government has established a “one stop shop” to simplify the management of worker’s compensation and motor vehicle accident disputes.
The NSW Customer Service MInister Victor Dominello said: “Making a compensation claim is already stressful enough and this new commission will put the claimant at the centre of the dispute resolution process.”
The newly formed Personal Injury Commission merges the two schemes so that one independent tribunal will manage all applications to resolve a dispute.
The intention of the legislation is to provide a more flexible, cheaper, quicker and fairer method of resolving disputes between claimants and insurers. There will be two specialist divisions to deal with workers compensation and motor accidents, with an independent judicial head.
Importantly, there are no changes to the rights and entitlements of claimants. The Personal Injury Commission is simply designed to streamline the dispute resolution process.
For that reason, in order to obtain the best outcome from the claims process, it is very important to obtain advice from an experienced compensation lawyer should you be injured at work or in a car accident.
The team at RMB Lawyers have many years of experience in negotiation resolutions with insurers or taking matters to their litigated end should that be necessary. We can help you with all aspects of your claim as well as the inevitable teething problems that will arise with the new Personal Injury Commission.
If you would like to speak to a lawyer who specialises in Personal Injury Compensation, please contact our office to arrange a free consultation. You can contact us by by phone or our 'Ask a Question' tool on ourwebsite.