A court worker who sued for a back strain has been knocked back in her claim to get extra damages for psychiatric distress caused by the injury.<\/p>\n
Depositions clerk Kerri Ann Sawtell suffered a lower back injury in May 2021 after twisting upwards to pass a file to a Maryborough Court magistrate, according to civil court documents. <\/p>\n
For her injury, described as a \u201clumbar paravertebral muscle strain\u201d, Ms Sawtell received workers\u2019 compensation payments for some time until she was assessed by WorkCover in 2022 to have no degree of permanent impairment. <\/p>\n
Ms Sawtell then filed a District Court damages suit in 2023 claiming around $400,000 in compensation for her physical injury, past economic loss, medical expenses and pain and suffering. <\/p>\n
In 2025, Ms Sawtell sought to amend the claim to include a psychiatric injury, asserting the original physical injury caused her to develop \u2018major depressive disorder\u2019 and \u2018panic disorder\u2019 months after the original event. <\/p>\n
In court filings in relation to the amended claim, it was revealed Ms Sawtell returned to work full-time in 2022, but left her employment in 2024.<\/p>\n
Court documents revealed a doctor who assessed Ms Sawtell for the benefit of her amended claim said she suffered physical manifestation of anxiety, including vomiting, in the years after her injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs Sawtell developed panic attacks following the physical injury,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese resolved, but then subsequently returned; this was at its worst in the period after stopping work in June 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe suffered panic attacks and found herself overwhelmed by small things.<\/p>\n
\u201cPanic attacks were now precipitated by thinking about work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Sawtell had a history of panic attacks, according to medical records given to the court; however had not suffered any for seven years prior to the physical injury. <\/p>\n
Court documents also outlined a report from a doctor, hired for the state\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back pain, when it occurred in 2021, caused a time-limited aggravation or relapse of [the appellant\u2019s] previous panic disorder and depression,\u201d the doctor said, concluding Ms Sawtell suffered \u201cno continuing psychiatric condition\u201d at the time of his assessment in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Rockhampton District Court decided against Ms Sawtell\u2019s claims in August 2025, noting<\/p>\n
Ms Sawtell did not follow correct procedure in bringing the psychiatric injury claim to court.<\/p>\n
Ms Sawtell brought the decision to the Court of Appeal in Brisbane this month.<\/p>\n
The panel handed down their decision on Tuesday, agreeing with the original findings of the District Court and denying Ms Sawtell\u2019s application once more.<\/p>\n
Primary Justice Shane Doyle took issue with the fact Ms Sawtell\u2019s original injury claim never including note of psychiatric impact, only outlining the back injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a matter of the normal use of language, a mental illness, however caused, cannot readily be described as \u201clower back injury\u201d or by any similar expression,\u201d Justice Shane Doyle stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe description of the injury as a lower back injury or the like does not include or describe the psychiatric impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Sawtell was ordered to pay the cost of the appeal to the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A court worker who sued for a back strain has been knocked back in her claim to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,185009],"class_list":{"0":"post-606039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-newswire-court"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}