Additional injuries from accident

The applicant had been involved in a significant accident. As we see in many cases, the applicant had received treatment in hospital for the most pressing injury, which was immediately covered by ACC, but as time went on it became apparent that they had suffered other injuries in the accident as well and ACC claims were made for those injuries at later dates. The passage of time can make it harder to assess the cause of the injury, and ACC had declined cover for some of the applicant’s injuries, which the applicant sought reviews of. The applicant was greatly affected by their injuries, which interfered with their ability to work.

It was identified at a case conference that there were gaps in the medical information, that if filled, might help the process. The parties therefore agreed to conciliation. Together, the parties were able to piece together all the relevant medical information and identify and recover the missing pieces of the puzzle. This meant ACC was able to re-evaluate its stance on cover and some of the matters did not need to go on to a review hearing.

The conciliation also had the added benefit of assisting the applicant to understand how ACC makes decisions, and why it had made the decisions it did. It enabled the applicant to express how they felt about the decisions, and the impact the decisions had on their life. This helped the relationship between the two parties.