Compensation: problems with the concept of disability and the use of American Medical Association Guides.
The Western Australia Liberal Government made radical changes to the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 1981 (WA) in 1993. One of the significant changes was the greater application of the American Medical Association Guides to the assessment of permanent injury. In 1999 further amendments to the same legislation required the application of the Guides to workers who wished to proceed with common law claims for negligence against their employers. Recent cases have shown the difficult in reconciling the language of the law with commonly used medical terms. This article surveys the use of the American Medical Association Guides in compensation legislation in Australia with some specific comments on the Western Australian system. It makes some suggestions for reform of the Western Australian system.
Guthrie
R
R
School of Business Law, Curtin University of Technology, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.
D000574:American Medical Association; D001315:Australia; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000145:classification / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*