3FRestriction on damages for loss relating to earning capacity

##### 3F. Restriction on damages for loss relating to earning capacity (1) Subsection (4) applies to the awarding of damages in respect of bodily injury to a person directly caused by, or by the driving of, a motor vehicle. (2) Subsection (4) does not apply to causes of action arising before the commencement of section 4 of the *Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Amendment Act 2006*. (3) If subsection (4) applies a court is not to award damages to a person contrary to that subsection. (4) In assessing the amount of — (a) past economic loss due to the deprivation or impairment of earning capacity; or (b) future economic loss due to the deprivation or impairment of prospective earning capacity, for the purpose of the awarding of damages, earning capacity is to be disregarded to the extent that it would have exceeded a capacity to earn 3 times the average weekly earnings at the date of the award. (5) For the purpose of subsection (4), the average weekly earnings at the date of the award is — (a) the amount estimated by the Australian Statistician as the average weekly total earnings of full‑time adult employees in Western Australia for the quarter ending most recently before the date of the award for which such an amount has been estimated by the Australian Statistician and is, at that date, available to the court making the award; or (b) if the Australian Statistician fails or ceases to make the estimate referred to in paragraph (a), the amount fixed by, or determined in accordance with, the regulations. [Section 3F inserted: No. 15 of 2006 s. 4.]