If you have been involved in a car accident, it is important to seek medical assistance as soon as possible. Some of the most common injuries that can occur in a car accident include:

• Whiplash
• Head and brain injuries
• Spine and neck injuries
• Shock and anxiety
• Broken bones and fractures
• Friction burns
• Internal bleeding

It is important to seek legal advice, regardless of how minor your injuries are. Our car accident compensation lawyers will guide you through the process of understanding your entitlements to compensation, based on the circumstances of the incident, the extent of your injuries and financial impact.

In Queensland, all motor vehicles have Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance and in the instance the at-fault driver was not insured, the National Injury Insurance Scheme (NIIS) is an option for those who sustain a serious injury. Our expert team will prepare your claim, evidence reports and attend any informal settlement meetings or Court proceedings, so you can focus on recovering.

To make a claim for car accident compensation, you must complete a Notice of Claim via the approved form and serve the document on both the owner of the vehicle involved in the accident and the vehicle’s CTP Insurer. 

It is critically important that the details for the Notice of Claim are 100% correct as failure to accurately describe the incident, the injuries suffered, or any other detail can have an extremely adverse impact on your right to compensation as the claim progresses. 

We strongly recommend that you seek legal advice from a lawyer with experience in this area of law prior to the submission of the Notice of Claim to ensure it is completed accurately.

A person injured in a car accident is entitled to be compensated for:

1. Their pain and suffering;
2. Any sick leave or wages and superannuation that have been lost as a consequence of being injured;
3. The likelihood of the loss of wages and superannuation into the future;
4. All medical treatment costs (both past and future);
5. The costs of travel to and from medical treatment;
6. The costs of family members or loved ones taking time to care for the injured person (only available in limited circumstances); and
7. Legal costs in making the claim (in most cases).

The process for determining the exact amount of car accident compensation having regard to the above categories is complicated and involves the examination of medical evidence and an injured person’s individual circumstances.

If you have been injured, suffered loss of income or incurred expenses because of a car accident, an expert compensation lawyer will help you claim for both your immediate and future needs. Sometimes people are not immediately aware of the financial impact of a car accident and each claim is specific to your circumstances, however they can include:

• Medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of income or earnings
• Rehab expenses
• Loss of quality of life

Other costs associated with your accident such as travel to and from medical centres, the expenses of family members and legal fees will also be taken into consideration.

Under Queensland law, there are extremely strict time frames associated with making a claim for compensation for a car accident injury.  To make matters more complicated, there are cascading time frames for not only the commencement of formal legal proceedings in a Court but also the delivery of a Notice of Claim.  Generally speaking:

• A Notice of Claim is required to be served on the CTP Insurer within one month of first consulting a Lawyer for compensation advice or nine months after the accident (whichever is the earlier), except in the case of claims involving unidentified vehicles against the Nominal Defendant. For these the Notice of Claim must be delivered within three months of the date of the accident.
• In the case of legal proceedings, three years from the date of the accident unless the injured person was under 18 when the accident occurred (in which instance the injured person has until their 21^st birthday to make a claim).

Failure to meet the time frames (particularly in the case of the three-year limitation in the case of legal proceedings) will almost always result in you losing your right to make a claim for car accident compensation.

In our experience, most claims for car accident compensation are completed within 9 to 18 months of a client first engaging our firm. In limited cases (such as where our clients have suffered multiple or catastrophic injuries), this time frame can be longer. 

We will provide you with an estimated time frame when we first sit down with you to discuss your claim. 

The costs of bringing a claim for compensation for a car accident injury varies depending upon how long it takes to prepare and present the claim to the CTP Insurer. 

Our firm handles all claims for car accident injury compensation on a no-win no-fee basis which means our clients pay nothing for legal fees or costs associated with their claim. 

It also means that we pay for all medical reports and other costs that are incurred as we work through the claims process, until we successfully obtain compensation for our clients.  If you don’t receive any compensation, we don’t get paid. 

We generally provide an estimate of the fees and costs that we anticipate that our clients will likely incur in respect of the claim once we have received a response from the CTP Insurer outlining whether they accept or reject liability. 

We also provide clients with updated confirmation of their fees and costs prior to participation in a compulsory conference or mediation.