What is a Section 78 Notice?
Medical Negligence
2 February 2026
min read
A section 78 Notice is a written decision from the Insurer declining the claim for either weekly compensation or medical expenses or both.
A worker can have the Insurers decision reviewed by the Personal Injury Commission (PIC) if they believe a mistake has been made, or the documents provided do not support the Insurers claim to decline liability.
At the very least you should get a lawyer to review the Section 78 Notice as in our experience a majority can be challenged in PIC.
You can’t challenge the decision to decline liability unless the decision is in a Section 78 Notice.
What is Section 78of the Workers Compensation Act?
The Section 78Notice is named after section 78 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998. This section requires an Insurer to give notice and a statement of reason as to why they are disputing liability for a claim.
What Does A Section 78Notice include?
The section 78 Notice must include the following;
- A copy of all documentation (including medical reports) relied on to arrive at the decision to decline liability.
- Set out the reasons why liability has been declined.
This must be done in writing and sent to the injured worker.
When Is A Section 78Notice Sent?
A Section 78 Notice must be sent each time the insurer declines either weekly payments or declines to pay for some treatment expense.
More often than not the insurer will just tell an injured worker over the phone that they are not going to pay for any further physiotherapy (for example) and not send out a Section 78 Notice. This is in contravention of the legislation. If this happens you must ask the insurer to put the reasons in writing and if they refuse to do so contact IROÂ and report the insurers conduct.
The insurer must also provide information to the worker about obtaining a review of the decision to dispute liability. It must also provide information to the worker about obtaining advice from a lawyer or other organisation such as IRO. You can request an internal review by the insurer however in our experience this is usually pointless as we haven’t yet seen an insurer change their mind!
If you wish to have the decision reviewed you should call Garling and Co on (02)8329 9500 1120 or complete a free case assessment here.
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