Sawtell v State of Queensland
[2026] QCA 62 · Doyle JA (Mullins P and Henry J agreeing)
A court depositions clerk for the State of Queensland injured her lower back at work in 2021 while twisting and reaching to hand files to a Magistrate. WorkCover assessed her back injury at zero per cent permanent impairment, and she sued the State for damages for the back injury. She later amended her claim to add a psychiatric injury (depression and panic disorder) that she said developed as a consequence of the back injury. The State applied to strike out the psychiatric injury part of her claim, arguing she had not completed the required workers' compensation steps for that injury. The Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal because the case raised an important point about what counts as an 'injury' under the workers' compensation laws, but dismissed the appeal. It held the psychiatric injury was a separate injury that the worker could not pursue for damages unless the insurer first decided she had sustained it. The worker was ordered to pay the State's costs.
Incident & injury
Worker turning and twisting, reaching upward and behind her seated position to hand and take court files from the Magistrate, sustaining a lower back injury
- Body regions
- Lumbar spine, Psychiatric
- Diagnoses
- soft tissue injury to the lumbar spine (LS paravertebral muscle strain), Major Depressive Disorder, Panic Disorder
- Incident date
- 12 May 2021
- Location
- Maryborough Magistrates Court, Queensland
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 14 April 2026
- Claim type
- WCRA Common Law
- Proceeding
- Appeal
- Plaintiff outcome
- Partial
- Occupation
- depositions clerk (Department of Justice and Attorney-General) Clerical & Administrative Worker
Outcome
Leave to appeal granted but the appeal was dismissed. The Court held that the plaintiff's consequential psychiatric injury was a separate injury from her assessed lower back injury, and that she could not seek damages for it because the insurer had not decided she sustained that injury as required by s 239A(4) of the WCRA. The strike-out of the psychiatric injury pleadings was upheld.
Key issues
Sawtell v State of Queensland [2026] QCA 62
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