Badly injured woman faces rent appeal

THE Motor Accidents Insurance Board is appealing a court decision which saw a Bushy Park woman win the right to have her rent covered by insurance after she was involved in a serious car crash.

Before the full court in the Supreme Court in Hobart yesterday, the MAIB appealed the decision of Justice Michael Brett who last year ruled that Emma Bricknell, who moved to Hobart to receive specialist treatment, had the right to have her rent considered a legitimate medical benefit.

Ms Bricknell was badly injured in an accident near Plenty on February 28, 2015 and spent almost three weeks in intensive care at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Ms Bricknell was then transferred to a medical ward and finally to an acute rehabilitation unit at the hospital.

She suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage to her brain, fractured spine, pulmonary contusions and injuries to her abdomen in the collision.

To keep receiving vital treatment in Hobart, the mother of five rented a house in Glenorchy and claimed the associated accommodation costs as a medical benefit pursuant to the Motor Accident Insurance Board schedule.

The MAIB administers payments of Tasmania’s compulsory third-party motor accident insurance scheme.

The scheme provides medical and income benefits on a no-fault basis to people injured as a result of a motor accident.

The MAIB refused Ms Bricknell’s claim to cover her rent of $290 a week between May 2015 and May 2016, a decision upheld by the Motor Accidents Compensation Tribunal.

But, on appeal to the Supreme Court last year, Justice Brett upheld the ground that the tribunal had erred in law in finding that the rent paid by Ms Bricknell was not an expense incurred for the provision of the treatment required by her.

“It follows that the rent is capable of being paid as a medical benefit under the schedule, provided that it was reasonably and necessarily incurred for the provision of the appellant’s treatment,” Justice Brett wrote at the time.

In his submissions to the appeal, Ms Bricknell’s lawyer Robert Phillips said she should not be expected to modify her financial arrangements to be able to access the necessary medical treatment, as a person who lived closer to Hobart would not need to do the same.

The court reserved its decision.