---
title: "Test a Victorian heart attack or stroke against significant contributing factor"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-a-heart-attack-or-stroke-claim-against-the-employment-test/victoria"
type: "task_jurisdiction_version"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "A21-WC20261023-19-VIC"
practice_area: "Personal Injury & Compensation (workers compensation, CTP/TAC, medical negligence)"
tier: "yellow"
lawyer_review: "required"
jurisdictions: ["VIC"]
last_reviewed: "2026-10-25"
---

# Test a Victorian heart attack or stroke against significant contributing factor

> From the diagnosis and the work, using a firm-controlled tool, table the significant-contributing-factor rule for a heart attack or stroke from 3 December 2003. Do not decide the claim.

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-a-heart-attack-or-stroke-claim-against-the-employment-test/victoria  
Last reviewed: 2026-10-25

Site index for agents: https://ailawframework.com/llms.txt

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Practice area | [Personal Injury & Compensation (workers compensation, CTP/TAC, medical negligence)](https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation.md) |
| Human involvement | Yellow: Lawyer and AI draft together |
| How AI is used | From the diagnosis and the work, using a firm-controlled tool, table the significant-contributing-factor rule for a heart attack or stroke from 3 December 2003. Do not decide the claim. |
| What the lawyer must review | Decide whether employment was a significant contributing factor. Apply the rule even when the event was spontaneous or tied to vascular disease. Do not add a significantly-greater-risk test. Health and wage records stay in a firm-controlled tool. Apply ASCR r 9, APP 11, and the notifiable-breach test. |
| Written for | Victoria |
| Applies to | [Test a heart attack or stroke claim against the employment test](https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-a-heart-attack-or-stroke-claim-against-the-employment-test.md) |

## Checking plan

**Verify against sources**

From 3 December 2003 compensation is not payable unless employment was a significant contributing factor to a heart attack injury or stroke injury. The definitions catch any incapacitating event linked with a circulatory condition, including a gradual process or a disease. The death page separately warns that a heart-attack death may be hard to class as work-related, and it excludes an immediate support package unless an accepted claim was already being paid.

- What the AI does: From the diagnosis and the work, using a firm-controlled tool, table the significant-contributing-factor rule for a heart attack or stroke from 3 December 2003. Do not decide the claim.
- What the lawyer does: The lawyer decides the legal question, checks the sources, and authorises anything the family or the insurer will receive.
- Who reviews: Lawyer competent in statutory workers compensation
- Basis: Checked against the linked sources on 23 October 2026. Confirm the current instrument before reliance.

## Checks the lawyer makes

1. Ask whether the event is a heart attack injury or stroke injury as the manual describes that class.
2. Use significant contributing factor, including for a spontaneous event.
3. Do not import a nature-of-employment risk comparison. The manual does not state one.
4. If the worker has died, keep the immediate-support exclusion on the death task.

## Notes

- No generative-AI practice note of the Workplace Injury Commission, Medical Panels or a Victorian court was opened. Apply the forum's current direction before a document is lodged.
- The manual does not set out the statutory definition item by item. Confirm the current definition before relying on its width.
- If health or wage records leave the firm-controlled tool, decide whether a Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) breach is notifiable.

## Practical guide

Jurisdiction: Victoria, claims manual, heart attack and stroke injuries

**Deliverable**: A note of the significant-contributing-factor question.

**Inputs**

- Diagnosis of the cardiac or stroke event
- The work being done and the conditions of that work
- Other circulatory risk factors

**Example**: Illustrative example: A worker collapses with a cardiac event while doing ordinary duties and has a long smoking history. The note records that the manual still requires a significant employment contribution, including where vascular disease is present. The lawyer decides. The tool does not treat the collapse at work as enough.

**Stop and escalate when**

- The event is before 3 December 2003.
- The diagnosis is not a circulatory event of the kind the manual describes.

Checked 2026-10-23.

## Sources

- [WorkSafe Victoria claims manual: define an injury](https://www1.worksafe.vic.gov.au/vwa/claimsmanual/Claims%20Manual/2-claims-management/2-1-workers-and-injuries/2-1-6-define-an-injury.htm) (checked 2026-10-23)
- [WorkSafe Victoria: before making a work-related death claim](https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/making-work-related-death-claim) (checked 2026-10-23)

*Practice guidance for planning and review. Confirm current primary sources and the requirements of the actual matter. This is general information, not legal advice.*