Recent Appeal from decision of WA Workers' Compensation Arbitration Service Arbitrator to District Court of WA - AUDINO -v- WA COUNTRY HEALTH SERVICE - WHEATBELT [2013] WADC 46 - delivered April 2013

This Appeal to the District Court of WA, under the provisions of the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act WA (WCIMA), involves considerations including whether the appeal "involves a question of law" (as required by WCIMA), whether the arbitrator denied the appellant procedural fairness, whether the arbitrator ought to have made a finding on an issue not put to the appellant and whether the arbitrator gave adequate reasons for decision and the application of the rule in Browne v Dunn in arbitration proceedings.

The appellant was employed by WA Country Health Service - Wheatbelt ("the employer") from 2006 as a cleaner. She alleged she suffered a hernia in the course of her employment and made a claim for workers' compensation under the provisions of WCIMA.

Her workers' compensation claim was disputed by the employer and, as the dispute was not resolved by the conciliation service process, it proceeded to a hearing before an arbitrator in August 2012. After hearing the matter, the arbitrator found the appellant had not suffered the alleged injury in the course of her employment.

She appealed to the District Court of WA on seven grounds: that the arbitrator erred in law by failing to take into account relevant evidence, denied her procedural fairness in deciding the issue of credibility, failed to decide an issue without adequate reasons, failed to take into consideration section 178 of the Act, made a finding without giving the appellant notice of such a possibility, considered the absence of a prescribed medical certificate without first raising this as an issue with the parties and wrongly disregarded the evidence of Drs Kennedy and Chang, or alternatively disregarded their evidence without providing sufficient reasons for the decision.

The appeal decision, handed down earlier this month, provides a very useful examination of the provisions surrounding the role, functions and powers of arbitrators in the WA workers' compensation scheme and also of the framework within which arbitrators operate.

In February 2013 His Honour Judge Stavrianou DCJ heard the appeal and delivered his decision in April 2013. He concluded that grounds 2, 5 and 6 involved a question of law and accordingly that leave should be granted to bring the appeal. His Honour also allowed the appeal and quashed the decision of the arbitrator.

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