The Mandoukos Principle in Practice – Injury excluded from Medical Dispute

In Brief

• A threshold psychiatric injury is defined by of s 1.6(1)(b) of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 (MAIA) and cl 4(2)(b) of the Motor Accident Injuries Regulation 2017 (MAIR).
• PIC Medical Assessors are only empowered to assess the "medical dispute" referred to them by the parties.
• It is critical that the parties clearly articulate the issues in dispute because their submissions define the scope of the medical dispute which the Medical Assessor may assess.

Facts

The PIC published its decision in Elammar v AAI Limited t/as AAMI [2024] NSWPICMP 280 on 24 May 2024.

The Claimant's injury was sustained in extraordinary circumstances.

The Claimant and the Insured driver were travelling in the same direction on the M5. They were initially involved in a relatively innocuous accident when the two vehicles swerved into each other.