Motor Vehicle Compensation

Throughout Australia, all cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles being driven on roads are required to have Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance.

Hence, when you are injured in a motor vehicle or car accident than it is the CTP insurer of the vehicle at fault that will pay the compensation or damages for your accident injuries.

The first step is to contact our office so that we can submit the claim form to the relevant CTP insurer for you given the complexity of this area of law.

We will take steps to serve the relevant CTP insurer of the vehicle at fault with a Notice of Claim Form which will start your claim.

Once a CTP Notice of Claim Form is served on the CTP insurer for a car injury or motor accident claim, then the CTP insurer is obligated to fund medical and rehabilitation treatment for your injuries. If you have paid for any medical or rehabilitation treatment prior to commencing the car injury compensation claim, you will be refunded these expenses once the CTP insurer is served with the Notice of Claim Form.

As all registered vehicles in Queensland are required to have CTP insurance, then your motor vehicle accident compensation claim will be against the CTP insurer and not your relative or friend. As a result, it will be the CTP insurer paying your compensation for your car accident injuries.

If you have been injured in a road accident by an unidentified vehicle or uninsured vehicle, you still can bring a compensation claim for personal injury. However, such a claim will be made against a government body set up for this situation being the Nominal Defendant.

The Nominal Defendant is a body set up by the Queensland Government to fund compensation claims made by individuals injured in circumstances where there is an unregistered or uninsured vehicle, or a car which has caused the accident cannot be identified.

You typically have 9 months from the date of the car accident or one month from the consultation with a lawyer (whichever is the earlier date) to bring a CTP damages or compensation claim. A CTP Notice of Claim Form can be served outside of this timeframe with a reasonable excuse.

However, this timeframe is shorter in circumstances where there is an unregistered vehicle, unidentified vehicle or where a vehicle does not have CTP insurance. In this situation, the claim must be made within 3 months from the date of the accident and if made outside of the 9 months post-accident date, your personal injury claim will be statute barred.

The amount of compensation you receive will be heavily dependent on the extent on the type of injuries you have, the severity of those injuries, your actual lost income and treatment expenses and medical evidence as to the nature and effect of your injuries. It will also depend upon your age and occupation at the time you were injured in the car accident.

They types of injuries you can claim for are exhaustive, but include:

• Back and neck injuries;
• Sprains and fractures;
• Crush injuries;
• Post traumatic stress disorder;
• Depression;
• Whiplash Injuries;
• Head injuries;
• Shoulder injuries;
• Hip injuries;
• Soft tissue injuries;
• Ankle knee and foot injuries;
• Spinal injuries;
• Catastrophic injuries;
• Traumatic Brain Injury;
• Carpal tunnel syndrome;
• Neurological injuries;
• Internal injuries;
• Amputations;
• Scarring;
• Psychiatric and psychological injuries including depression, post traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, anxiety, traffic phobia and pain disorder;
• Nervous shock;
• Chronic pain disorder;
• Complex regional pain disorder.

Neck and whiplash injuries can be debilitating and can flare up a number of times over a life time. Significant compensation can still be awarded for these types of injuries in a personal injury damages claim.

South East Injury Lawyers has successfully obtained payouts for many individuals injured as a result of motorcycle accidents. Please contact our expert injury lawyers to discuss further.

South East Injury Lawyers has successfully obtained payouts for many individuals injured as pedestrians due to the negligence of a driver of a vehicle. Please contact our expert injury lawyers to discuss further.

If you have been injured in a car or motor vehicle accident, bike accident or as a pedestrian hit by a vehicle you can claim for:

Compensation for the pain and suffering;
Damages for out of pocket medical and rehabilitation expenses;
Compensation for lost wages and future lost wages up until retirement age;
Damages for gratuitous assistance provided by family and friends around the house if certain thresholds are met;
Damages for future gratuitous assistance;
Compensation for past and future paid care;
Damages for future medical expenses.
Past and Future Loss of Superannuation Benefits.

This will depend on the severity of your injuries and when you will reach maximum medical improvement. Typically, we can obtain medical evidence in relation to your car accident injuries approximately 10 months post motor vehicle accident and hence your car injury claim will likely be ready for resolution approximately 12 months post-accident.

It is very rare for a CTP damages claim to proceed to a determination before a judge. Most of these injury claims are settled informally and through negotiation at a settlement conference.

We operate on a strict no win, no fee guarantee arrangement. Hence, if you are not awarded compensation we will not be charging any legal fees or outlays. The CTP insurer is also required in a large number of car injury claims to pay a significant percentage of your legal costs.

If your motor vehicle, car or bicycle accident happened on the way to or from work or during the course of your employ, you may also be entitled to compensation under the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. This may mean that WorkCover will pay for your medical and rehabilitation expenses and also a percentage of your weekly income while you are not able to work.

If you are partly at fault for the car or motor vehicle accident, you still may be entitled to bring a compensation claim for the injuries you have sustained in the road accident.

Please contact our senior expert lawyers to discuss further.

If a family member has passed in a car accident, you may be entitled to a dependency claim or a nervous shock claim.

A dependency claims occur when the person who passed is someone that you depended on financially or to provide services around the home. You may be entitled to make a claim for that loss of income support and services that were received. Dependency claim are usually limited to members of the deceased’s family and include a spouse, parent and child of the deceased. A spouse can also include a de-facto spouse and also children not born prior to the accident.

A nervous shock claim is where the circumstances of a fatal accident result in a psychiatric injury being developed. The psychiatric injury can develop as a result of the death of a loved one or seeing the loved one seriously injured after an accident.

At South East Injury Lawyers, we also manage workers compensation, workcover, work injury claims, public place claims and TPD claims.

Contact our expert injury lawyers on 1300 446 999 to discuss your legal rights and commencement of your claim or complete our free, no obligation case review form for a response within 30 minutes from a senior expert injury lawyer.