Health / Law

A new approach to resolving ACC claims

09:07 am on 19 March 2021

Listen

A new dispute resolution service is revolutionising the way many ACC claims are dealt with.  

Talk-Meet-Resolve was established 18 months ago by veteran ACC researcher and lawyer Warren Forster and co-founder, lawyer and adjudicator Matthew Clayton, and is now involved in nearly one hundred cases a month. It is an agreement-based process which aims to resolve issues within two weeks.

Warren Forster says after years of fighting ACC in the courts, he's now seeing cases resolved in a fortnight, which might have taken 3 to five years to resolve through litigation.

But he says the legislation governing ACC is still structurally flawed and does not cover many injuries or cases it should.

Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller