Test an injury against the Queensland injury scale or the damages gateway
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the assessment the lawyer supplies, mark the injury against the injury scale where chapter 3 applies, or against section 237 where the claim is for workers' damages. Do not decide the claim.
- What the lawyer must review
- Decide whether chapter 3 or section 237 applies
- There is no separate significant-injury certificate in the pages opened
- The injury scale runs from no award to the gravest injury
- The tool does not choose the value or the gateway
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Queensland general damages under chapter 3, or workers' damages under section 237
Produce. A marked comparison of the assessment with the test the lawyer selects. No decision on the claim.
Have ready. The assessment the lawyer supplies; Whether the claim is inside chapter 3 or is a workers' damages claim; Any notice of assessment, election or terminal-condition material.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The draft says general damages are unavailable because the impairment is under 10 per cent. The lawyer removes that sentence. Section 61 asks for an injury scale value, and the bottom of the scale is a case that justifies no award, which the court assesses.
Stop and hand it back when
- The lawyer has not said whether chapter 3 or section 237 applies.
- The draft decides that damages are available or unavailable.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Do not begin AI assistance until the responsible lawyer has defined and confirmed its permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Where chapter 3 applies, section 61 requires the court to assess an injury scale value from 0 to 100 for an injury arising after 1 December 2002. The court uses the rules in a regulation and has regard to values given to similar injuries in previous proceedings. The scale runs from a case not severe enough to justify any award of general damages to a case of the gravest conceivable kind.
- Civil Liability Regulation 2025 section 5 and schedules 2 to 5 are those rules. The in-force reprint is current from 1 October 2025. The regulation commenced on 1 September 2025. An injury scale value must be a whole number. For multiple injuries the court considers the dominant-injury range, and may go above the maximum dominant value only as schedule 2 section 4 allows: not above 100, rarely more than 25 per cent higher, and with detailed written reasons if the increase is more than 25 per cent. Whole person impairment is important and is not the only consideration.
- Section 5 takes the Act out of deciding liability and damages for an injury for which compensation is payable under the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003, other than an injury to which section 34(1)(c) or 35 of that Act applies. Those sections were not opened. A work injury inside section 5 is not tested on the injury scale.
- For workers' damages, section 237 is the gateway. It is not a single percentage. The worker needs a notice of assessment for the injury, or, where there is no notice for that injury, a notice for another injury from the same event with a degree of permanent impairment of 20 per cent or more or an election under section 239, or a terminal condition. A dependant is in section 237(1)(b). Section 237(3) removes the entitlement where a required section 239 election was followed by acceptance of a lump sum under chapter 3 part 10 division 3, subject to section 266, which was not opened.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrongs Act Form 4, claimant's prescribed information: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Guide to Form 4, the claimant's prescribed information named on the Medical Panels Wrongs Act referrals page, including the section 28LZC(b) certification. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.
Sources
- Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) section 61 · 2026-10-23
- Civil Liability Regulation 2025 (Qld), in-force reprint · 2026-10-23
- Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) section 237 · 2026-10-23
- Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) section 5 · 2026-10-23
No certificate of significant injury was found in the Queensland pages opened for this version.
Do not copy a range from schedule 3 into the table. The lawyer reads the injury item.
The assessment stays in a firm-controlled tool. Apply ASCR r 9 and APP 11, and consider Privacy Act notification.