Lawyer crucial to winning 3-year fight
Karen McGrath fought for three years before winning her claim against the ACC at the Supreme Court.
The 62-year-old, of Otago, broke her ankle while watching a rugby game in 2002.
“The bones were shattered. I was on crutches for six months. The pain, oh, was terrible.”
The injury led to chronic pain which meant she could only be up and about for a few hours a day, forcing her to cut back her working hours to half-time.
“Then all of a sudden I get a letter saying I have to go back to work. I rung them up — I was crying — and I said: ‘I can’t!’ They said: ‘Tough cheese.’”
ACC wanted her to undergo a vocational independence test, despite documents from her doctor showing the severe pain meant she could only work about 15 hours a week.
Mrs McGrath contacted ACC lawyer Peter Sara, who took on her case for $25 a week — the only amount she could afford to pay.
She faced three years of unsuccessful appeals to the High Court and Court of Appeal, before taking it to the Supreme Court, where the decision ruled in her favour.
Having a lawyer had been her lifesaver, she said, and she would not have continued on had it not been for legal advice.
“When the article came out in the newspaper that I’d won this case, I got letters and phone calls from people all over New Zealand wondering what they could do. My only advice to them was to get a lawyer.” — Vaimoana Tapaleao