- Reconsideration (consideration of evidence)
- Procedure (reconsideration) (delay)
In Decision No. 1845/08, the hearing panel found that the worker had entitlement for a low back condition as of December 2004. The worker applied to reconsider Decision No. 1845/08 with regard to that finding.
The worker did not initiate the application for reconsideration until more than six years after release of the original decision.The Tribunal practice direction on Reconsiderations makes clear that, as a general practice, it is not advisable to reconsider a decision more than six months after it has been released. In the view of the Vice-Chair, where there is an extensive delay in filing a reconsideration request, the Tribunal should not exercise its discretion to reconsider in the absence of extremely compelling and exceptional circumstances. There were no such circumstances in this case.The hearing panel considered the evidence and came to a reasonable conclusion. The worker did not raise any new evidence or information that was not previously available. Thus, there was no reason why the reconsideration request could not have been made in a timely fashion.The application to reconsider was denied.