Take away points from the recent Legal Heroes presentation to the Australian Orthopaedics Association

David from Legal Heroes was recently invited to present on trending Motor Accident Legal cases and topics for the Australian Orthopaedics Association, at the beautiful Yacht Club located on Hamilton Island.

Takeaway points from the presentations are as follows:

• PIC Medical Assessors are becoming more open to using their medical knowledge to draw inferences to make findings on causation. E.g. occupational history (carpenter/council worker), clinical history (rib fracture) and clinical knowledge ( when a TKR becomes necessary)

  
  

• Imaging, whilst not necessary for determining whether an injury is a threshold injury, is still vitally important, especially if the imaging is done early after the accident. Imaging must be considered in the context of the clinical history and mechanism of the accident.

  
  

• MRIs are more accurate than ultrasounds.

  
  

• Not all imaging reports are correct. Clinical Examination is also a relevant consideration.

  
  

• The accident just needs to be a material cause and not the sole cause of a non-threshold injury.

  
  

• If there is a pre-existing condition, be sure to consider whether there has been an aggravation of a pre-existing condition. If there is, the claimant must refer to precise clinical evidence to prove there has been an aggravation and identify this as an issue.

• The mere presence of a tear shown on imaging cannot automatically infer that an injury is more than a threshold injury. Causation must still be established.

  
  

• The Reasonable and Necessary test in CTP is a much higher burden than in workers compensation. Necessary is the treatment must be absolutely indispensable, and recovery cannot be achieved without it.

It was such an honour to be invited to give the talk and it was a pleasure to meet a lot of the Orthopaedics Surgeons at the Seminar.