WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 146U
WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 146U
146U . Procedure and powers of panels
(1) In making an
assessment a specialised retraining assessment panel is to act speedily and
informally, and in accordance with good conscience, without regard to
technicalities or legal forms and, except as provided in this Act, is not
bound by rules of practice nor evidence.
(2) For the purposes
of assisting it in making an assessment a specialised retraining assessment
panel may request the worker, employer, insurer, medical practitioner or
approved vocational rehabilitation provider concerned —
(a) to
attend before the panel; or
(b) to
answer questions put by the panel; or
(c) to
produce to the panel any relevant document; or
(d) to
authorise any person who possesses a relevant document to produce it to the
panel.
(3) Powers given by
subsection (2) to a panel are to be exercised in private unless the worker
otherwise consents, and any information or document obtained from, or by the
consent of, the worker is not to be disclosed or given to any other person,
except the person from whom it was obtained, without the consent of the
worker.
(4) A person is not
entitled to be represented in proceedings before a specialised retraining
assessment panel.
(5) If the worker
concerned, without reasonable excuse (proof of which is on the worker),
refuses to comply with a request made by the panel under subsection (2)(a),
(b), (c) or (d), an arbitrator may issue a certificate to that effect and upon
the issue of the certificate the making of an assessment in relation to the
retraining criterion in question is suspended until an arbitrator certifies
that the suspension is removed.
(6) To the extent that
the practice and procedure of a specialised retraining assessment panel are
not prescribed under this Act, they are to be as the panel determines.
[Section 146U inserted: No. 42 of 2004 s. 110.]