Australia, June 3 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 5:
1. WARD P: I agree with Ball JA.
2. ADAMSON JA: I agree with Ball JA.
3. BALL JA: The issue raised by this appeal is whether an employer which has failed to serve a pre-filing defence (defined below) to a claim for "work injury damages" within 42 days after receiving a pre-filing statement (also defined below) from the worker in accordance with the regime set out in Ch 7 Pt 6 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW) (the 1998 Act) is nonetheless entitled in subsequent court proceedings to raise a defence of contributory negligence to the worker's claim.
The legislation
4. It is convenient to...