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Requesting an independent medical examination shouldn't be a combative process, but it's often viewed as one, according to an employment lawyer.

"Employers don't have an automatic right to demand that an employee attend an IME," Mallesons senior consultant Brett Feltham says.

And, even when an employer genuinely wants an IME to obtain information about an employee's fitness for work, the latter might refuse the direction "for all sorts of reasons", he explains in a new HR Daily Premium webcast.

Whether or not that refusal is reasonable depends on many factors, including steps taken by the employer when issuing the direction, Feltham says...