scholarly journals A Truly No-Fault Approach to Treatment Injury Cover in Accident Compensation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ruth Upperton
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
The Past ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Fault Compensation ◽  
Acceptance Rates ◽  
Reporting Mechanism

<p>New Zealand’s accident compensation system is ‘no-fault’, meaning that New Zealanders are compensated for their injuries whether or not they can find someone to blame for their misfortune. However, until 2005, claimants injured while receiving medical treatment had to show either that their injuries were caused by negligence, or that their injuries were both rare and severe. The negligence standard was taken from tort law, and required the claimant to show that the injury was a registered health professional’s fault. This fault requirement created many of the problems that tort law had in the past: it was inefficient, arbitrary, and created a blaming culture that bred hostility between the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), the injured, and health professionals. In 2004, ACC published a review of the medical misadventure provisions, calling for them to be replaced by no-fault compensation provisions in line with the spirit and content of the rest of the accident compensation scheme. In 2005, medical misadventure became treatment injury, and both application and acceptance rates rose for claims concerning injuries received during medical treatment. However, the treatment injury provisions still contained fault elements, despite the legislature’s claim that the provisions were no-fault. In this paper, I will address the role of fault in a compensation scheme for those injured during medical treatment. First, I will define fault in its tort law context and outline some strengths and weaknesses of fault as a legal concept. Then, I will provide a short overview of New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme, the medical misadventure provisions, the push for reform, and the structure of the treatment injury provisions. This will give background to an in-depth discussion of the treatment injury provisions’ incorporation of fault standards. Also relevant to this discussion is the accident compensation scheme’s reporting mechanism, which potentially complicates ACC’s role as purely an injury compensating, preventing and rehabilitating body. Finally, it is necessary to consider whether compensation itself is inherently fault-based, an argument raised by some commentators. My conclusion is that some aspects of the treatment injury provisions still use fault to determine cover in some situations. The provisions give particular weight to the fault of the claimant in causing her own injury. This use of fault standards can be removed from the treatment injury provisions with some minor amendments, which are set out at the end of this paper.</p>

scholarly journals A Truly No-Fault Approach to Treatment Injury Cover in Accident Compensation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ruth Upperton
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
The Past ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Fault Compensation ◽  
Acceptance Rates ◽  
Reporting Mechanism

<p>New Zealand’s accident compensation system is ‘no-fault’, meaning that New Zealanders are compensated for their injuries whether or not they can find someone to blame for their misfortune. However, until 2005, claimants injured while receiving medical treatment had to show either that their injuries were caused by negligence, or that their injuries were both rare and severe. The negligence standard was taken from tort law, and required the claimant to show that the injury was a registered health professional’s fault. This fault requirement created many of the problems that tort law had in the past: it was inefficient, arbitrary, and created a blaming culture that bred hostility between the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), the injured, and health professionals. In 2004, ACC published a review of the medical misadventure provisions, calling for them to be replaced by no-fault compensation provisions in line with the spirit and content of the rest of the accident compensation scheme. In 2005, medical misadventure became treatment injury, and both application and acceptance rates rose for claims concerning injuries received during medical treatment. However, the treatment injury provisions still contained fault elements, despite the legislature’s claim that the provisions were no-fault. In this paper, I will address the role of fault in a compensation scheme for those injured during medical treatment. First, I will define fault in its tort law context and outline some strengths and weaknesses of fault as a legal concept. Then, I will provide a short overview of New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme, the medical misadventure provisions, the push for reform, and the structure of the treatment injury provisions. This will give background to an in-depth discussion of the treatment injury provisions’ incorporation of fault standards. Also relevant to this discussion is the accident compensation scheme’s reporting mechanism, which potentially complicates ACC’s role as purely an injury compensating, preventing and rehabilitating body. Finally, it is necessary to consider whether compensation itself is inherently fault-based, an argument raised by some commentators. My conclusion is that some aspects of the treatment injury provisions still use fault to determine cover in some situations. The provisions give particular weight to the fault of the claimant in causing her own injury. This use of fault standards can be removed from the treatment injury provisions with some minor amendments, which are set out at the end of this paper.</p>

scholarly journals Should New Zealand Shirk Its Obligations? A Critical Perspective on Private Law Scholarship

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 429
Author(s):  
Bevan Marten ◽  
Geoff McLay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Party Autonomy ◽  
Accident Compensation

This article concerns the role of the private law scholar in New Zealand, and how such scholars use their skills to improve the law. It argues that while an obligations scholar's preference may be to engage with the courts and other academics in their scholarly activities, a focus on statutory reform better suits New Zealand conditions. Scholars should share their talents with policy makers, law reform bodies and legislators, helping to explain the importance of a coherent system of private law, and how this may be achieved. The authors then go a step further by suggesting that, in the New Zealand context, the preferable approach to reform may be one involving policy-based solutions exemplified by the accident compensation scheme, as opposed to approaches based on traditional private law principles such as party autonomy.

scholarly journals Case Comment – Cumberland v Accident Compensation Corporation

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Anthea Williams
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Personal Injury ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Physical Effects ◽  
Wrongful Birth ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Lost Opportunity

In Cumberland v Accident Compensation Corporation, the Court of Appeal held that where a mother is denied the information that her foetus is disabled, and thus loses the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy, the "continuing pregnancy" can be a personal injury covered by the Accident Compensation scheme. This article examines the judgment and argues the Court of Appeal has extended New Zealand case law on "wrongful births" without explicitly acknowledging this. The author suggests that, by focussing purely on the physical effects on the mother and her lost opportunity to determine the medical treatment given to her, the Court has avoided the value laden approach that has plagued other wrongful birth cases.

scholarly journals Vindicatory Damages in the Child Welfare Tort Cases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Neild
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Vicarious Liability ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Statutory Duty ◽  
Statutory Power ◽  
The Way

<p>This thesis argues that vindicatory damages should be available in the child welfare tort cases against public authorities. These are cases in which the plaintiffs sue public authorities either for not protecting them from harm when they were children, or where it is alleged that the authority’s employees abused the children while in its care. Vindicatory damages would be intended to mark the wrong to the plaintiff, rather than attempting to compensate the consequences. This thesis argues in support of the availability of a separate head of vindicatory damages in tort law, including negligence, and explores some of the liability issues which arise in these cases, including vicarious liability, liability for omissions and liability in negligence for the way in which a statutory power is exercised or for a breach of a statutory duty. New Zealand's accident compensation scheme is also discussed: it is argued that vindicatory damages in tort law should not be barred by the scheme.</p>

scholarly journals Accident Compensation in Swiss and New Zealand Law: Some Selected Issues That Undermine the Purpose in Both Schemes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yvonne Wampfler Rohrer
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Work Capacity ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Accidental Injury ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Fault Compensation ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Assessment Of Evidence

<p>This dissertation analyses selected issues that undermine the coherence and the purposes of the Swiss and New Zealand accident compensation schemes. Unlike other European states the Swiss accident compensation provides cover for non-work related accidental injury, which makes it a useful subject of comparison with the New Zealand accident compensation scheme which provides a comprehensive, no fault compensation scheme for personal injury. In undertaking a largely comparative approach the paper argues that both schemes have drifted away considerably from the original underlying purpose to provide compensation for work incapacity and, on the other hand, to restore the claimant to a level of work capacity as soon as possible. This thesis is illustrated by examining the vulnerability of the schemes to political change, the arbitrary dichotomy between incapacity to work caused by accidental injury and incapacity caused by sickness, the definitions of an accident in both schemes and the assessment of evidence. The paper finds that both schemes should be amended and suggests alternative approaches for each issue.</p>

scholarly journals Summary

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Susan St John
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Welfare Economics ◽  
Cost Price ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Price Signals ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Future Challenges

The Accident Compensation Scheme was introduced in New Zealand as a form of social insurance. The issue quickly became whether ACC should embody private insurance principles. This article explores this very issue and other future challenges in ACC going forward, including determining what types of injuries ACC should cover, the role of welfare economics, and the tension between the no-fault concept with ACC's emphasis on cost/price signals. 

scholarly journals Accident Compensation in Swiss and New Zealand Law: Some Selected Issues That Undermine the Purpose in Both Schemes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yvonne Wampfler Rohrer
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Work Capacity ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Accidental Injury ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Fault Compensation ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Assessment Of Evidence

<p>This dissertation analyses selected issues that undermine the coherence and the purposes of the Swiss and New Zealand accident compensation schemes. Unlike other European states the Swiss accident compensation provides cover for non-work related accidental injury, which makes it a useful subject of comparison with the New Zealand accident compensation scheme which provides a comprehensive, no fault compensation scheme for personal injury. In undertaking a largely comparative approach the paper argues that both schemes have drifted away considerably from the original underlying purpose to provide compensation for work incapacity and, on the other hand, to restore the claimant to a level of work capacity as soon as possible. This thesis is illustrated by examining the vulnerability of the schemes to political change, the arbitrary dichotomy between incapacity to work caused by accidental injury and incapacity caused by sickness, the definitions of an accident in both schemes and the assessment of evidence. The paper finds that both schemes should be amended and suggests alternative approaches for each issue.</p>

scholarly journals Vindicatory Damages in the Child Welfare Tort Cases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Neild
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Vicarious Liability ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Statutory Duty ◽  
Statutory Power ◽  
The Way

<p>This thesis argues that vindicatory damages should be available in the child welfare tort cases against public authorities. These are cases in which the plaintiffs sue public authorities either for not protecting them from harm when they were children, or where it is alleged that the authority’s employees abused the children while in its care. Vindicatory damages would be intended to mark the wrong to the plaintiff, rather than attempting to compensate the consequences. This thesis argues in support of the availability of a separate head of vindicatory damages in tort law, including negligence, and explores some of the liability issues which arise in these cases, including vicarious liability, liability for omissions and liability in negligence for the way in which a statutory power is exercised or for a breach of a statutory duty. New Zealand's accident compensation scheme is also discussed: it is argued that vindicatory damages in tort law should not be barred by the scheme.</p>

On Future Directions in Pathology

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 274-277
Author(s):  
Benjamin F. Trump ◽  
Irene K. Berezesky ◽  
Raymond T. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Clinical Pathology ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Diagnostic Pathology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
The Many

The role of electron microscopy and associated techniques is assured in diagnostic pathology. At the present time, most of the progress has been made on tissues examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and correlated with light microscopy (LM) and by cytochemistry using both plastic and paraffin-embedded materials. As mentioned elsewhere in this symposium, this has revolutionized many fields of pathology including diagnostic, anatomic and clinical pathology. It began with the kidney; however, it has now been extended to most other organ systems and to tumor diagnosis in general. The results of the past few years tend to indicate the future directions and needs of this expanding field. Now, in addition to routine EM, pathologists have access to the many newly developed methods and instruments mentioned below which should aid considerably not only in diagnostic pathology but in investigative pathology as well.

A literature review on firms' internationalisation through e-commerce

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Riccardo Resciniti ◽  
Federica De Vanna
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
International Business ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Foreign Markets ◽  
New Markets ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship

The rise of e-commerce has brought considerable changes to the relationship between firms and consumers, especially within international business. Hence, understanding the use of such means for entering foreign markets has become critical for companies. However, the research on this issue is new and so it is important to evaluate what has been studied in the past. In this study, we conduct a systematic review of e-commerce and internationalisation studies to explicate how firms use e-commerce to enter new markets and to export. The studies are classified by theories and methods used in the literature. Moreover, we draw upon the internationalisation decision process (antecedents-modalities-consequences) to propose an integrative framework for understanding the role of e-commerce in internationalisation

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