Table an NSW hearing-loss claim under section 17
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the audiograms and the employment history the lawyer supplies, table the dates, the binaural figures and the employers, and list the section 17 deemed date and the five-year period. Do not calculate a whole person impairment.
- What the lawyer must review
- Decide whether the hearing loss is claimed, and which employment it is claimed against.
- Use section 17 for the deemed date and the employer. Do not invent a percentage threshold.
- Do not convert binaural loss to whole person impairment. Table 9.1 is for the lawyer, not the tool.
- Keep medical details in the firm's system. Apply ASCR rule 9, APP 11, and the Privacy Act notifiable-breach test.
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Hearing loss under section 17 of the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) and SIRA permanent impairment guidelines chapter 9
Produce. A table of audiogram dates, binaural figures, employers, the deemed date and the relevant period. No whole person impairment.
Have ready. Audiograms the lawyer supplies; Employment history; Date notice of injury was given.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The audiogram states a binaural figure and notice was given on 1 June 2026 while the worker was still in noisy work. The tool records that date for the lawyer to check as the deemed date, lists employers in the five years before it, and does not convert the figure.
Stop and hand it back when
- The tool is asked to convert a binaural figure, to apply a percentage threshold, or to choose the employer.
- The employment history does not show which jobs were of a nature that could cause the loss.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the audiograms and the employment history the lawyer supplies, table the dates, the binaural figures and the employers, and list the section 17 deemed date and the five-year period. Do not calculate a whole person impairment. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Section 17 applies to loss or further loss of hearing caused by a gradual process. Boilermaker's deafness, and deafness of a similar origin, are deemed to be that kind of loss. The injury is deemed to happen when notice is given, if the worker is then in employment of that nature, or otherwise on the last day of such employment before the notice.
- Compensation is payable by the employer who employed the worker in employment of that nature when notice was given or, if the worker was not then so employed, by the last such employer. Other employers during the relevant period contribute in proportion to that employment. The period is the five years before notice, or the shorter period in section 17(1)(e) where a prior hearing loss is deemed to have happened inside those five years.
- The guidelines assess binaural hearing impairment with the 1988 National Acoustic Laboratories tables. A presbyacusis correction applies only to gradual-process occupational loss. Up to 5 per cent may be added for severe work-related tinnitus before whole person impairment. Non-work-related loss is assessed and recorded. The tool does not apply those steps.
- Table 9.1 converts binaural hearing impairment to whole person impairment. The guideline's own example uses 8 per cent binaural hearing impairment and 4 per cent whole person impairment. Those figures belong to the example. The tool does not look up the table or use them as a rate.
- Where an earlier noise-induced impairment was not assessed under the guidelines, clause 9.15 takes a proportion of the current binaural loss and expresses what remains as whole person impairment. It does not deduct dollars previously paid. The tool does not perform that proportion.
Sources
- Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) section 17 · 2026-10-23
- SIRA Workers Compensation Guidelines, chapter 9, hearing · 2026-10-23
Section 17 states no percentage threshold. The guidelines' presbyacusis correction is the ageing step that was opened, and only for gradual-process occupational loss. The formula for a worker older than 81, and the monaural formula in clause 9.9, are not applied. Section 61 of the 1998 Act was not opened, so no notice deadline is taken from it.