Test an injury against the Victorian serious-injury gateway
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the diagnoses and the impairment assessment the lawyer supplies, set the injury against the serious-injury definition the lawyer names. The tool does not decide that the injury is serious or that damages may be brought.
- What the lawyer must review
- Section 93(17): cover serious long-term impairment or loss of a body function, and permanent serious disfigurement.
- Also cover severe long-term mental or behavioural disturbance or disorder, and loss of a foetus.
- Treat 30 per cent or more as deemed serious. Under 30 per cent, damages proceedings need a certificate or court leave.
- For work, use section 325 and section 335, not section 93. This is not the Part VBA test.
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Transport Accident Act 1986 (Vic) section 93, or Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic) sections 325 and 335
Produce. A comparison of the injury with the definition the lawyer has named. Not a certificate and not a leave application.
Have ready. Diagnoses and any impairment determination; Whether the claim is a transport accident or a workplace injury; The current section 93 or sections 325 and 335.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The Commission has assessed impairment at 18 per cent after a transport accident. The table records that section 93(3) does not deem the injury serious and that section 93(4) requires a certificate or leave. The lawyer decides whether to apply. The tool does not draft the application.
Stop and hand it back when
- No impairment determination is on the file and the table still says the 30 per cent deeming applies.
- The table uses Part VBA percentages for a transport-accident or workplace damages gateway.
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
- Use section 93(17) only for a transport accident. The narrative test is serious long-term impairment, permanent serious disfigurement, severe long-term mental or behavioural disturbance or disorder, or loss of a foetus.
- Section 93(3) deems the injury serious only where the Commission has determined the degree under section 46A, 47(7) or 47(7A) at 30 per cent or more.
- For a workplace injury, section 325 uses permanent serious impairment, permanent serious disfigurement, permanent severe mental or behavioural disturbance or disorder, or loss of a foetus. Section 335(1) deems 30 per cent or more serious.
- Do not apply the Part VBA figures of more than 5 per cent, 5 per cent for the spine, or 10 per cent for psychiatric injury. Section 28LC takes transport-accident and Part 5 workplace claims outside that Part.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Request to the Transport Accident Commission for a serious injury certificate | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter asking the Transport Accident Commission to determine impairment and, if it is under 30 per cent, to issue a serious injury certificate for a common law damages claim. |
| Material for a Victorian WorkSafe Medical Panel | Letter | AI use Yellow | Index and statutory questions for a Medical Panel under the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013, for an impairment dispute or a court referral. |
| Material for a Victorian Wrongs Act Medical Panel | Letter | AI use Yellow | Claimant's index where a respondent may refer a significant-injury question to a Medical Panel, which states whether the threshold is met and not a percentage. |
| Permanent impairment claim form (SIRA): lump sum workers compensation | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to SIRA's permanent impairment claim form, with the form's own threshold words set beside the 11% and 15% figures on SIRA's current permanent impairment page. |
| TAC serious injury application form (Common Law Protocols 2026): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Guide to the TAC form lawyers use to request a serious injury certificate under Part 6 of the Transport Accident Act 1986 and the Common Law Protocols 2026, including the section 93(17) limbs and the signed authority. |
| TAC impairment application form (Impairment Assessment Protocols 2026): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Guide to the TAC form lawyers use to request an impairment assessment under Part 3 of the Transport Accident Act 1986 and the Impairment Assessment Protocols 2026. |
| Index for a NSW Personal Injury Commission medical assessment | Letter | AI use Yellow | Working index and list of matters for a Personal Injury Commission medical assessment, in the workers compensation or motor accidents division, not a letter to the assessor. |
| TAC common law time limit notification form: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Guide to the TAC form used when a serious injury certificate application will be lodged outside the six-year period in the Limitation of Actions Act 1958, under the Common Law Protocol 2026. |
| Non-economic loss workings | Other | AI use Yellow | Workings for pain and suffering and loss of amenities: the Victorian threshold and gazetted cap, the Queensland injury scale for 2026–27, and the New South Wales proportion of a most extreme case. |
| Request that a NSW CTP insurer concede impairment greater than 10 per cent | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter asking a New South Wales CTP insurer to concede that permanent impairment from a motor accident is greater than 10 per cent, and recording the section 6.14 time for a damages claim. |
| NSW work injury damages: claim letter and pre-filing checklist | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter to a New South Wales workers compensation insurer claiming work injury damages, with a checklist for the section 315 pre-filing statement. |
| WorkSafe worker's claim for impairment benefits: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the WorkSafe form a worker uses to claim compensation for permanent impairment from a work injury, which the claims manual treats as a non-economic loss claim. |
| Victorian WorkSafe impairment benefit: stability checklist | Checklist | AI use Yellow | Checklist and short letter asking a WorkSafe agent to assess a permanent impairment benefit once the injury is stable. |
| WorkSafe Form A, application for common law damages: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Guide to WorkSafe Form A for an application under section 328 of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 or section 134AB(4) of the Accident Compensation Act 1985. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.
Sources
- Transport Accident Act 1986 (Vic), authorised version 158 · 2026-10-23
- Transport Accident Act 1986 (Vic), section 93 · 2026-10-23
- Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), section 325 · 2026-10-23
- Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), section 335 · 2026-10-23
Authorised Transport Accident Act version 158, effective 2 October 2026, was read for section 93. The serious-injury definition matched the text used here.
WorkSafe says dust-related workplace common law claims have a different path from 2 October 2026. Do not use the ordinary section 335 steps for those claims without the current Act.
Keep health, wage and scheme records in a firm-controlled tool. Apply ASCR r 9 and APP 11, and consider whether any breach is notifiable under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).