Liaison With The Legal Representative

The legal representative should be contacted as soon as possible to alert him or her to damages obligations under the SRC Act.

At this time, it is appropriate to also provide current details relating to the respective amounts of the dependant's compensation payments.

While they may quickly be compiled using the 'VCDS.CM' (View Claim Determination Summary) function, death payments are usually restricted to:

• a lump sum figure; and

• funeral costs.

Additionally, it must be remembered that costs relating to:

• weekly payments for a prescribed child (section 48 (6) refers); or

• medical reports for the employee, prior to the date of death;

do not form part of costs to be recovered and should not be taken into account when providing details of claim payments.

A recovery account record may be set up in anticipation of settlement at any time close to the settlement date.

NB  Information on creating recovery accounts is provided in comprehensive step by step detail in Volume Twelve, Overpayments & Recovery, Part Six.