Medico-legal systems and health policy

Brainbox has longstanding experience in medico-legal systems and health policy cutting across the practitioner competency, patients' rights, medico-legal causation and New Zealand's accident compensation scheme.

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Tom Barraclough is a current member of the ACC Scheme Advisory Panel, administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Accident Compensation Corporation. He has contributed to litigation at various levels of the judicial system and in a range of tribunals. Tom has co-authored a number of publications on access to justice in New Zealand's medico-legal systems. These consist of a range of reports on access to justice for ACC claimants and articles in peer-reviewed journals. These insights have been applied in submissions to the Justice Committee and have been recognised in Parliamentary debates and independent ministerial inquiries.

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Tom's work on access to justice has crossed into human rights and disability policy. In 2014, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities made a concluding observation on the New Zealand Government's compliance with the Convention in connection with his work with Acclaim Otago and a wider team of researchers.

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Curtis Barnes was closely involved in the same work on the ACC system and has strong links with the medical community, with experience assisting medical practitioners with matters related to the Health and Disability Commissioner's Code of Patient's Rights.

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Brainbox's work on health policy and human rights is reflected in its other contributions toward designing Accessibility Legislation for New Zealand and with the Human Rights Commission.