What is an Injury Scale Value Medical Assessment in a Motor Vehicle Accident claim and who does the assessing?

From the motor vehicle accident scheme comes the concept of the ‘injury scale value’ (‘ISV’).The ISV is a numeral between 1 to 100, to be decided by a Court or agreed by the parties to the action, for the dominant injury the injured person sustained as a result of the motor vehicle accident. Pursuant to the motor vehicle accident scheme, some heads of damage (types of compensation) are only available if the ISV threshold for that type of compensation is satisfied. For example, to be entitled to be awarded compensation for future loss of earning capacity, the injured person’s ISV must be greater than 7 (i.e. 8 plus), or to claim for non-economic loss the injured person’s ISV must be greater than 10 (i.e. 11 plus).

While the ISV is not decided by a medical doctor, medical opinion informs what the ISV for the dominant injury should be. Commonly, an injured person in a motor vehicle accident claim will attend an ISV assessment, so that a doctor can answer questions set by Regulation 23 of the Civil Liability Regulations 2013 (SA). In decided cases, Courts have paid significant attention to the opinions of doctors expressed in ISV assessment reports.

Not any doctor can perform an ISV assessment. Instead, only doctors accredited by the South Australian Motor Accident Injury Accreditation Scheme (‘MAIAS’) are entitled to perform ISV assessments. A list of the doctors accredited by the MAIAS can be found here.

The assessing doctors are accredited to assess particular body systems. Consequently, it is important to check that the accreditation of the assessing doctor extends to the injured person’s injuries. It may be necessary for more than one ISV assessment to occur, if the injured person has multiple injuries that extend over a few body systems.

As the ISV assessments are indicative to the Court and the parties, and not determinative of the ISV, it is common that the CTP insurer may request an injured person undergo an ISV assessment, even if the injured person has already undergone an ISV assessment arranged at their own initiative, or if they have already had an ISV assessment arranged by the CTP insurer.

If you are considering undergoing an ISV assessment, or the CTP insurer has arranged for you to undergo an ISV assessment, contact MKF Lawyers to discuss your claim. ‍

At MKF Lawyers, we have experienced solicitors that will talk to you about your claim options and how best to navigate the ISV assessment process. You can request a confidential, free claim check by calling us on 08 7093 2998 or by submitting an online enquiry via our website at mkflawyers.com.au/freeclaimcheck

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