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Personal Injury Claims Under the Wrongs Act

Part VBA of the Wrongs Act 1958 ('the Act') governs thresholds in relation to the recovery of damages for non-economic loss. Non-economic loss is defined in the Act and includes any one or more of the following:

• pain and suffering (e.g. headaches)
• loss of amenities of life (e.g. loss of sight)
• loss of enjoyment of life (e.g. unable to continue with favourite pastime).

The Act requires that if making a claim in respect of non-economic loss, a Claimant must first have a significant injury that satisfies the threshold levels prescribed by the Act. Those threshold levels are:

• in the case of injury (other than psychiatric injury), impairment of more than 5 per cent
• in the case of psychiatric injury, impairment of more than 10 per cent.

Part VBA of the Act sets out (amongst other things) the pre-litigation procedures Claimants and Respondents must comply with in dealing with a claim for non-economic loss. For example, Claimants cannot simply estimate the percentage of their impairment; rather it must be assessed by an Approved Medical Practitioner, and this assessment must be provided to the Respondent in a 'prescribed form' (a Certificate of Assessment). Certain 'prescribed information' relating to the claim and parties must also be exchanged between Claimants and Respondents.

The Wrongs (Part VBA Claims) Regulations 2005 ('the Regulations') supplement Part VBA of the Act by specifying the particular 'prescribed information' and 'prescribed forms' to be exchanged in accordance with that Part.

The Department of Justice provides on this website links to:

• all forms that have been prescribed by the Regulations ('prescribed forms'); and
• templates which include all the information that is prescribed by the Regulations ('prescribed information').

These forms and templates can either be printed out for parties to fill out by hand; or you can save them and type into them directly before printing out.

Please note:

• The Department of Justice strongly recommends that Claimants and Respondents obtain legal advice before dealing with these prescribed forms or the templates containing prescribed information; and
• The notes contained on this website and attached to the forms and templates do not provide medical practitioners with all of the information relevant to making assessments under Part VBA. Medical practitioners need to have undertaken an approved training course if they wish to make assessments under Part VBA of the Wrongs Act.