Guides

Start with the document you were given

Guides to the paperwork a New South Wales workers compensation claim runs on, the decisions an insurer makes along the way, and where a dispute about one of those decisions is decided.

General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.

A workers compensation claim in New South Wales is mostly a sequence of documents. An injury is notified to an employer, a treating doctor writes a certificate of capacity, and an insurer makes decisions in writing about liability, about weekly payments and about treatment. Each of those documents does a different job, and the guide that will help you is the one that matches the piece of paper in front of you.

These pages set out general information about the law and the procedure in New South Wales. They do not print a number of days, because the period that binds you depends on your claim and on the document you were sent, and because the scheme was amended during 2026 with parts of it still being brought into effect. For the shape of the whole thing in order, start with how the scheme works. If you would rather not work it out alone, tell us what you have been sent and when it reached you.

The three questions people ask first

Each of these guides answers one question properly rather than all of them briefly.

Notifying an injury at work

For anyone hurt at work who is not sure who has to be told, or who mentioned it to a supervisor in passing and is now wondering whether that counted. It explains what notification is, what an employer is expected to do once it knows, how a worker can notify directly if the employer has not, and why what is recorded at the beginning tends to shape everything that follows.

Certificates of capacity

For workers whose treating doctor has written what icare NSW calls a NSW workers compensation certificate of capacity, and for anyone whose certificate has just changed. It explains what the certificate is used for, who reads it, that it runs for a set period and has to be kept current, and what tends to follow when the stated capacity moves.

When a decision goes against you

For anyone who has received a written decision from an insurer declining liability, stopping or reducing weekly payments, or refusing to fund treatment a doctor has recommended. It explains what that document is, that the insurer can be asked to review it, and how a dispute about it reaches the Personal Injury Commission.

The scheme, part by part

These pages describe the parts of the scheme rather than the procedure around them. They are the better starting point when what you want to understand is the entitlement itself.

How the scheme works

For anyone new to workers compensation who wants the sequence in order before looking at any one part of it. It sets out how a claim starts, who decides what, and where a decision can be challenged.

Weekly payments

For workers who are off work altogether or back on reduced hours, and for anyone whose payments have been recalculated, reduced or stopped. It covers what weekly payments are for and what happens when an insurer reassesses capacity or earnings.

Medical expenses

For workers whose doctor has recommended treatment, surgery or equipment that the insurer has not approved. It covers how treatment is funded under the scheme and what happens when a request is declined.

Liability disputes

For workers whose claim has been declined on the basis that the injury is not one the scheme covers, or that the connection between the injury and the employment is not made out. It covers what is actually in issue in that kind of dispute and what the insurer has to put in writing.

Permanent impairment

For workers who have been asked to attend a permanent impairment assessment, or who have been given a medical assessment certificate. It covers what is assessed, who assesses it, and why the result affects what else in the scheme is open to you.

Return to work

For workers being offered suitable duties, or being asked back on hours they do not think they can manage. It covers return-to-work planning and what an employer is and is not required to do.

Work injury damages

For workers considering a claim against an employer in negligence, which this scheme allows only in limited circumstances. It covers the impairment threshold that has to be reached first and the steps the Personal Injury Commission requires before court proceedings can begin.

Where a workers compensation dispute is decided

Disputes in this scheme are dealt with by the Personal Injury Commission of New South Wales rather than by a court in the first instance. The Commission was created by the Personal Injury Commission Act 2020 (NSW) and it handles both workers compensation and motor accidents matters.

Before an application can be made, the claim has to have been put to the employer or the insurer. The Commission also publishes that a worker who disagrees with all or part of an insurer’s decision has the right to ask the insurer to review it before lodging an application. Which pathway an application then follows depends on what is in dispute.

Legal disputes cover entitlement to weekly compensation, to medical and related expenses, to lump sum compensation for permanent impairment, and to death benefits. The Commission lists a preliminary conference, then conciliation, then an arbitration hearing before a member if no agreement is reached.
Medical disputes go to an independent medical assessor appointed by the Commission, who issues a medical assessment certificate. The certificate binds the parties unless it is appealed to a medical appeal panel, and that appeal has its own short period running from the date the certificate is issued.
Expedited assessment is a faster route for some weekly payments, medical expenses, work capacity and injury management disputes. Where no agreement is reached at the preliminary conference, a senior lawyer of the Commission can make an interim payment direction if the dispute is about weekly payments or medical expenses.
Damages disputes are the work injury damages route. The Commission publishes a permanent impairment threshold that has to be reached first, and requires a prefiling statement and, except in limited circumstances, a mediation before court proceedings are started.
Miscellaneous disputes is the pathway for matters that do not fall within the others.

The scheme was amended in 2026, and not all of it has started

This matters more here than it usually would. The Personal Injury Commission records that the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2025 and the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Reform and Modernisation) Act 2026 were assented to in late 2025 and early 2026, and that between them they changed injury assessment, claims management, the entitlements available and how disputes are decided.

Some of it commenced on 27 March 2026, including amendments to the Personal Injury Commission Act 2020. The Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Regulation 2026 was published on 26 June 2026, and further amendments commenced on 1 July 2026. More is set to commence on 1 October 2026. The practical effect is that an article or a conversation from before those dates can be out of date without looking out of date, and that which version of the rules applies to you may depend on when your injury was notified.

Eligibility for entitlements for primary psychological injuries notified after 1 July 2026 changed significantly, and the Commission describes the change in those terms.
Where a primary psychological injury claim involves what the legislation calls relevant conduct, the Industrial Relations Commission has jurisdiction to determine whether the conduct is relevant conduct, and its determination is binding. Other disputes arising from the same injury may still be brought in the Personal Injury Commission.
The way permanent impairment is assessed changed for most workers. The Commission lists exceptions, including exempt workers such as police officers, paramedics and firefighters, coal miners, volunteers, dust disease claims, and claims with a date of injury before 2002.
A further assessment may be open to a worker who can show what the amendments call an unexpected and material deterioration in their condition. The Commission publishes the increase in impairment that goes with that test.
From 1 October 2026 the test for compensation for medical and related treatment changes from reasonably necessary to reasonable and necessary, and the Commission takes on a power to approve commutation agreements.
Transitional provisions decide which version of the legislation applies to a particular claim. The Commission states plainly that it cannot advise on how the legislation applies to your matter.

About the time limits

There are several of them, they are not the same as one another, and some are short. A claim for compensation has its own period. An appeal against a medical assessment certificate has a different and much shorter one, running from the date the certificate was issued. Court proceedings for work injury damages have a limitation period running from the date of injury, which is different again. Each is set by legislation.

That is why no page on this site prints a number of days. Confirm the period that applies to you before you rely on it. The period that binds you depends on the kind of claim, on the injury, on when it was notified, and now on which version of the amended legislation applies to it. Check the document you were sent, check it against the official sources below, and get advice while the period is still running rather than afterwards. Some periods can be extended and some cannot, and that is not a question worth answering by guessing.

Making the claim itself. The period runs from the injury, and late notification can make a claim harder to run even where it stays open.
Asking the insurer to review a decision, and then applying to the Personal Injury Commission about it.
Appealing a medical assessment certificate to a medical appeal panel. This is the shortest of them and it runs from the certificate, not from the day you read it.
Starting court proceedings for work injury damages, which is a limitation period and is separate from every step inside the scheme.

What these guides will not do

They will not tell you whether your claim will be accepted, what your impairment will be assessed at, or when you will be back at work. Those answers need the claim file, the medical material and the insurer’s written reasons. Anything said before someone has read those is a guess, however confidently it is put.

No settlement figures, no amounts recovered and no averages. A number from someone else's claim tells you nothing about yours.
No success rates. The claims that were never run are missing from every such figure.
No reviews, testimonials, client accounts or photographs.
No promise about how long anything takes. The scheme's own timetable is not within anyone's control, and parts of it are being rewritten at the moment.
No suggestion that you need a lawyer. Many workers compensation claims are resolved without one, and free legal information and referral is available in New South Wales through Legal Aid NSW and its LawAccess NSW service.
No fee figures. Costs in this scheme are regulated and the arrangements are not the same as in ordinary litigation. Ask for the costs position in writing before anything begins, whoever you speak to.

If a decision has arrived

A short summary of what has happened is enough to begin. Please do not send medical records before a conflict check.

The insurer's letter, and the date it reached you
Your claim number, if one has been given
Your certificates of capacity, including the earlier ones
When and how the injury was notified to your employer
The names of the practitioners treating you