The Hon Wayne Martin AC, Chief Justice of Western Australia has today announced he will be retiring from the Supreme Court, finishing in his role on 27 July 2018.

Decision handed down in Rowe v Rose [2018] WADC 38. Ms Rose successful and awarded $191,194.75. We acted for the widow and two children of a 41 year old man who was killed after a car collided with him while crossing a road outside his Bicton home in 2013.

Third reading of Civil Liability Legislation Amendment (Child Sexual Abuse Actions) Bill 2017. This will now become law in the next few months. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Civil Liability Act 2002 and the Limitation Act 2005 in order to remove the limitation periods in respect of civil actions for child sexual abuse. Victims , and particularly those who were children at the time of the abuse, will now be able to start legal proceedings against the perpetrators and institutions responsible.

Second reading of Workers Compensation Amendment Bill which increases compensation to relatives of Deceased Workers. Bill likely to become law late in 2018.

The proposition that there are any proven “Health Benefits of Work” has finally been put to rest. Here is the abstract from a recently published article in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ 20 November 2015, Vol 128 No 1425), written by Dr Gordon Purdie:

The Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine released a position statement which included statements about the chance of ever getting back to work if a person is off work for 20, 45 and 70 days. These statements are being repeated by government and non-government agencies in New Zealand and Australia. They have been presented with the intent to influence public policy. They are presented to general practitioners in the context of certifying people as unfit for work. The statements are based on an incorrect interpretation of the referenced study, are not justified and should be corrected.

Dr Purdie’s criticism was accepted by the the Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, RACP (NZMJ 19 February 2016, Vol 129 No 1430):

Dr Purdie makes a number of points about information in the Health Benefits of Work position statement and subsequent publications. We respond to his points in turn. Dr Purdie raised concerns that we have misinterpreted or misrepresented the survival curves. We concur, in retrospect, that we have not interpreted the survival curve correctly. We thank Dr Purdie for drawing this to our attention. The curve does indicate that the longer someone is off work the lower the chance of the individual returning to work, however the percentages quoted are not accurate. The concordance of the evidence supports the principle, if not the precise detail. We have recently published an update of the evidence and we plan to update the position statement.

We await the new position statement. Clearly, if there is no evidence to support the “Health Benefits of Work”, the various stakeholders, such as the State WorkCover authorities should be informed immediately.

On 7 AUGUST 2015 welcome news was that our appeal of our client’s Criminal Injuries Compensation assessment was successful [2015] WADC 136. Our client had been awarded $4,772 (which included an interim payment in the sum of $1,172 for medical expenses) for his injuries and losses he suffered in a “road rage” assault. We appealed that assessment and the award was increased to $75,000. Assessors don’t always get it right. Interestingly in our client’s case the offenders who had assulted him could not be found. However, a person who suffers injury as a consequence of the commission of an alleged offence, where no person is charged with the alleged offence, may still apply for compensation for that injury and any loss suffered (see s 17(1) and s 17(2) of the CIC Act). Mental and nervous shock is included in the definition of ‘injury’: s 3 of the CIC Act.