A judicial review supported an assessment of permanent impairment made by an independent medical assessor in a claim for motor accident compensation and no error of law was established.

The plaintiff claimed that the assessor ignored relevant material and that reasons provided for the assessment were inadequate.

The Court not was not persuaded that any challenges to the assessment were made out.

The making of the assessment was open to the medical assessor who was an independent medical expert in his field and the assessment was made within his expert professional judgment.

The assessor took an oral history, undertook an examination, reviewed documentation provided, set out findings, and made an assessment. The Court found that there were sufficient reasons provided for the assessment and that no error of law was established

The assessor’s reasons made clear his process of reasoning, and his obligation to provide reasons did not require “an expression of the obvious”.

“The decision by the assessor was not only plainly open but appears to have been required by the findings as to mastication and deglutition arising from the plaintiff’s history. However as the plaintiff has not established an error of law it is not necessary to say more about it,” Adamson J said [48].

Summons dismissed, with costs.

Farr v Insurance Australia Ltd t/as NRMA [2014] NSWSC 1435. Adamson J.