---
title: "Test an injury against the Queensland injury scale or the damages gateway"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-an-injury-against-the-significant-injury-description/queensland"
type: "task_jurisdiction_version"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "A21-WR20261022-8-QLD"
practice_area: "Personal Injury & Compensation (workers compensation, CTP/TAC, medical negligence)"
tier: "yellow"
lawyer_review: "required"
jurisdictions: ["QLD"]
last_reviewed: "2026-10-25"
---

# Test an injury against the Queensland injury scale or the damages gateway

> 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.

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-an-injury-against-the-significant-injury-description/queensland  
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 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 |
| Written for | Queensland |
| Applies to | [Test an injury against the significant-injury description](https://ailawframework.com/practice/personal-injury-and-compensation/test-an-injury-against-the-significant-injury-description.md) |

## Checking plan

**Verify against sources**

The tool marks the assessment against the Queensland text the lawyer selects. It does not decide the claim.

- What the AI does: 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 does: The lawyer decides which test applies and whether the assessment meets it.
- Who reviews: Lawyer competent in this practice area
- Basis: Checked against the linked sources on 23 October 2026. Confirm the current instrument before reliance.

## Checks the lawyer makes

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

## Notes

- 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.

## Practical guide

Jurisdiction: Queensland general damages under chapter 3, or workers' damages under section 237

**Deliverable**: A marked comparison of the assessment with the test the lawyer selects. No decision on the claim.

**Inputs**

- 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**: 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 escalate when**

- The lawyer has not said whether chapter 3 or section 237 applies.
- The draft decides that damages are available or unavailable.

Checked 2026-10-23.

## Sources

- [Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) section 61](https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/cla2003161/s61.html) (checked 2026-10-23)
- [Civil Liability Regulation 2025 (Qld), in-force reprint](https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/sl-2025-0109) (checked 2026-10-23)
- [Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) section 237](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/qld/consol_act/wcara2003400/s237.html) (checked 2026-10-23)
- [Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) section 5](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/qld/consol_act/cla2003161/s5.html) (checked 2026-10-23)

## Forms and precedents for this task

| Form or precedent | Kind | AI level | Summary |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Wrongs Act Form 4, claimant's prescribed information: completion guide](https://ailawframework.com/precedents/personal-injury-and-compensation/form-vic-wrongs-form-4.md) | Form | 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.

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