Workers Compensation & Self Insurance
Return to Work SA’s Summer of Discontent May Soon Be Over
June 9, 2022South Australia Government announces Bill to address the issues caused by the authorities in Preedy and Summerfield Equilibrium is a state in which...
The Cost of Workers Compensation in an Ageing Workforce
February 1, 2022Australia has an ageing population and, as a result, an ageing workforce. It is predicted that there will be an average premium increase...
Learning to Live With COVID-19 – The Trolley Dilemma in Our Economy
January 14, 2022How do we decide which industries are so essential that the risks of suspending operations outweigh the risk of using COVID-19 positive workers...
Summerfield, Opioids and Rising Workers Compensation Premiums – What’s the Connection?
December 17, 2021COVID-19 has taken headlines, but the opioid crisis is still with us, and business owners are warned of increased workers compensation premiums. The...
Obligations Under the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA): All for One, but Not Necessarily One for All!
October 26, 2021South Australian Employment Tribunal confirms that section 18 of the Return to Work Act 2014 does not apply beyond the parties to the...
Workers Compensation, Health and Safety and COVID-19
June 30, 2021The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (“the WHS Act”) and, in South Australia, the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA)...
Evaluating the Cause(s) of Impairments Comes Down to “Common Sense”
May 14, 2021The Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia “doubles-down” on its reasons in Preedy but fails to articulate a straightforward test...
All for One and One for All!
December 17, 2020South Australian Employment Tribunal finds that all members of a group under a licence of self-insurance are equally and severally liable for suitable...
Staff Profile: John Walsh
April 10, 2020A life-changing year In January 2014 John, as Managing Partner of Donaldson Walsh, was looking forward to continuing to guide his firm through...
Managing Your Workforce in a Stand Down
April 3, 2020What are the implications for workers performing modified duties pursuant to the Return to Work Act? A lot of business are currently faced...
The Opioid Crisis in Australia
February 26, 2020In my article published in November 2019 in relation to the American experience of the opioid crisis and what it meant for Australia,...
Assessor or Adjudicator?
February 13, 2020Three recent decisions in the SAET have served to highlight the difficulty in remediating incorrect impairment assessments under the Return to Work 2014...
The Opioid Crisis in America
November 26, 2019What does it Mean for Australia? In 1952 the Sackler family bought a small company and transformed it into Purdue Pharma which, over...
Impairment Assessments and Section 22 of the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA)
November 21, 2019Batten down the hatches! One wonders whether (the then Honourable John Rau – Deputy Premier) could have appreciated the sense of irony that...
Estoppel and “Contracting Out” of Workers Compensation Legislation
September 30, 2019Two recent decisions of the Supreme Court of South Australia comment on the issue of “contracting out” of workers compensation legislation, these decisions...
Provision of Suitable Employment Under Section 18 of the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA)
June 21, 2019Decisions regarding the application of Section 18 of the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA) (the Act) are slowly trickling out of the...
Life After Mitchell
April 16, 2019Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia Publishes Decision in Return to Work Corporation of South Australia v Mitchell [2019] SASCFC...
Calculating Average Weekly Earnings When a Worker Suffers a Second Compensable Injury
April 12, 2019The recent decision of the South Australian Employment Tribunal in Knight v Department for Education [2019] SAET 64 centred on the correct calculation...
De-mystifying ReturnToWorkSA Premiums
April 5, 2019ReturnToWorkSA (“RTWSA”) provides South Australian employers with insurance to protect their business and their workers in the event of a work-related injury. The...
Dealing with Self-Represented Litigants in the South Australian Employment Tribunal
November 15, 2018The recent decision of the Full Bench of the South Australian Employment Tribunal in Richards v Little Company of Mary Health Care [2018]...
DW Fox Tucker & Bradbrook Lawyers: Two eminent employment law specialists join forces
November 7, 2018DW Fox Tucker is delighted to announce its merger with Bradbrook Lawyers, another of Adelaide’s premier employment law practices. This significant joining of...
Workers Compensation Case Studies
November 7, 2018Return to Work Corporation of South Australia v Karpathakis; Return to Work Corporation of South Australia v Rudduck [2018] SASCFC 45 This decision...
Client Profile: Calvary Group
July 4, 2018When Cardinal Moran invited six Sisters of the Little Company of Mary to come to Australia in 1885 to care for the sick,...
Looking into the Crystal Ball
July 4, 2018What can we expect in Workers Compensation in the near future? On 16 April 2018 State Treasurer Rob Lucas announced that the average...
Mad March in Adelaide
February 15, 2018The Review and the Election The State Election in March is shaping up to be the most interesting and unusual election in decades....
Public Sector Shake Up – It’s All About the Money!
January 19, 2017Shortly after my last article (Rau’s World – Public Sector Shakeup) (2 December 2016), Self Insurers of South Australia (“SISA”) published its Position...
Rau’s World – Public Sector Shake Up
December 2, 2016The SA Government’s Cabinet recently discussed and approved the transfer of its public service workers compensation claims to the State’s two existing claims...
The “Fairness” Scale
November 18, 2016How to measure the reasonableness of your administrative action Following on from the High Court’s decision in Comcare v Martin [2016] HCA 43...
Management Prerogative
November 14, 2016The High Court of Australia reinforces an Employer’s right to legitimate management action The recent decision of the High Court of Australia in...
The Parliamentary Inquiry in the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA)
August 17, 2016An Investigation in the Known Unknowns and the Unknown Unknowns Recently it has been announced that the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety Rehabilitation...