WORKERS COMPENSATION LAWYERS FOR INDUSTRIAL DEAFNESS

People who have sustained industrial deafness in NSW are entitled to claim the following under the NSW workers compensation scheme:

• Hearing aids
• Lump sum compensation

If you were exposed to noisy employment in NSW after 1 January 2002, your audiogram will need to demonstrate a binaural hearing loss of at least 20.5% to be eligible for lump sum compensation.

Legal costs and disbursements are claimed on your behalf from the Independent Review Office (IRO) and are payable directly to Advantage Legal at the conclusion of your claim. There is no cost to you for pursuing a hearing loss or lump sum compensation claim with our assistance.

If you would like to know more about your rights and entitlements, get in touch with our expert team for a free initial consultation and confidential advice.

The process to pursue a claim for industrial deafness under the NSW workers compensation scheme is as follows:

• You obtain an audiogram from an audiologist and contact our team for a free initial consultation.
• We obtain funding from the Independent Review Office to advise you on your legal rights and entitlements and to pay for a disbursements such as medical reports.
• You attend a medico-legal examination arranged by us. The doctor will provide a report which determines the extent of your hearing loss and whether you have a claim for lump sum compensation.
• We’ll prepare all claim documentation for you and lodge a claim on the workers compensation insurer of your last noisy employer. This could be a former employer or if you still work in noisy employment, your current employer. The claim could be for hearing aids, lump sum compensation or both.
• The insurer will typically approve your claim based on the evidence we provide or will request you to be seen by a medico-legal doctor of their choosing. If they obtain their own medico-legal report, the insurer will consider the totality of all of the evidence available, approve your claim, attempt to negotiate or deny it.
• If your claim is denied or the offer made by the insurer is unacceptable you will then need to attend the Personal Injury Commission of NSW to have the dispute resolved. This may require an arbitration and/or independent medical examination.
• Once you accept the insurer’s offer or if you obtain a favourable result from the Personal Injury Commission you will obtain your hearing aids and lump sum compensation. If you were exposed to noisy employment on or after 1 January 2002, you will require a whole person impairment of 11% or greater to be entitled to lump sum compensation, which equates to a binaural hearing loss of 20.5%.

The NSW workers compensation scheme provides that lump sum compensation for permanent impairment is payable for industrial deafness in circumstances where a worker has a whole person impairment (WPI) of 11% or greater. To obtain an 11% whole person impairment, a worker requires a binaural hearing loss of 20.5%.

There are a number of exceptions to the above depending on when your injury occurred and the industry that you work in.

For more information, contact our senior team for a free consultation.

It is not compulsory for injured workers to instruct a workers compensation lawyer to pursue a NSW worker compensation industrial deafness claim. However, it is worth noting that claims for compensation are frequently denied by NSW workers compensation insurers. Without knowledge of the NSW workers compensation scheme laws, regulations, guidelines and procedures it is unlikely that you will succeed with your claim without assistance from a workers compensation lawyer.

The Advantage Legal team will manage the entire claim process on your behalf and make sure that you are kept informed at all times. Our professional fees and disbursements will not cost you a cent as they are typically covered by a funding grant from the Independent Review Office (IRO). In circumstances where your claim is denied, we will vigorously defend it on your behalf to ensure that you have the best possible chance of receiving your hearing aids and/or lump sum compensation.

For a free initial consultation and advice, please contact our senior team.

In the majority of circumstances, legal fees and disbursements are covered by a grant of funding from an external organisation known as the Independent Review Office (IRO). This means that you won’t be liable for our professional fees and disbursements if we offer to represent you.

In circumstances where IRO does not provide a grant of funding because your claim falls outside of their jurisdiction and we still offer to represent you, we will do so on a no-win, no fee basis. In such circumstances, costs and disbursements will charged directly to the relevant workers compensation insurer at the conclusion of your claim.

If you would like to know more, contact our senior team for a free initial consultation.