Workers’ compensation lawyers Brisbane & Gold Coast

If a member of your family has died in a workplace accident, you may be entitled to claim damages under WorkCover.

The Personal Injury Lawyers can provide you with legal advice if you intend to make this kind of claim. Questions? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

The amount of compensation you receive will be determined by calculating the monetary value of your injuries and their impact on your quality of life. Chat with a Lawyer online for free to get a better idea. (All your circumstances can have an impact on what you can claim). Try our compensation calculator for more insights into what you may be able to claim.

If you aren’t awarded any compensation, you won’t have to pay any of your legal fees.

However, you may have to cover the legal costs of the person you made a claim against.

If you’re concerned about this aspect of taking legal action, our workers’ compensation team can make sure you’re aware of all risks involved. Speak, chat or call our accredited workers’ compensation lawyers as they can explain more about personal injury claims payouts.

To discuss your workers’ compensation claim with The Personal Injury Lawyers, call us on 1800 958 498, or fill in the free claim assessment form today. Whether you’re based in Brisbane or looking for a trusted workers’ compensation lawyer Gold Coast residents rely on, our team is here to guide you through every step of your claim.

If you have been injured in a work accident or an accident on your way to or from work, or during a work break, you may be entitled to compensation or common law damages, or both.

We have won compensation for injured workers from many different industries for a wide range of work-related injuries.

Some of the types of injuries we have helped secure compensation for clients include:

• Neck and back injuries
• Whiplash injuries
• Shoulder injuries
• Upper and lower limb injuries
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Electrocution injuries
• Head and Brain injuries
• Neurological injuries
• Burn injuries
• Scarring
• Fractures
• Soft tissue, strain and sprain injuries
• Repetitive strain injuries
• Internal injuries
• Hernia injury
• Chemical and asbestos exposure
• Industrial Deafness
• Foreign body injuries
• Eye injuries
• Amputation injuries
• Crush injuries
• Silicosis
• Psychiatric and psychological injuries
• Dependency claims in cases of fatal accidents
• And many more

Yes. A work injury doesn’t have to be physical. Psychological injuries like stress, anxiety, depression or insomnia may also be covered under Queensland’s workers’ compensation scheme.

Even seemingly minor physical injuries, like whiplash or jarring, can worsen over time and become more serious, affecting your ability to work or carry out daily tasks.

It’s important to seek legal advice early, even if your symptoms seem manageable now.

If you have sustained a workplace injury you may be entitled to both a statutory claim for basic benefits and a common law claim for additional damages, depending on your circumstances. 

You may be eligible for the following payments, regardless of who was at fault:

Workers’ Compensation Benefits (also known as WorkCover Benefits or Statutory Benefits) which can include:

• Medical and Rehabilitation treatment expenses
• Wage Benefits
• Lump Sum Compensation
• Future expenses related to ongoing treatment, home modifications, or retraining

As well as Common law damages for:

• Pain & Suffering
• Loss of past and future income
• Past and future medical and rehabilitation expenses
• Paid care and assistance
• Loss of past and future superannuation benefits

You should also be aware that:

• If you have sustained an injury whilst travelling to or from your workplace then you may have rights to claim Workers’ Compensation as well as other rights to compensation at law, ie. in negligence, trespass, motor vehicle accident claims, public liability claims etc. 
• Even though you may be termed an independent contractor, contractor or sub-contractor by the party engaging your services when your work injury occurred, it may very well be the case that you have the right to claim Workers’ Compensation Lump Sum Compensation or Common Law damages, or both, as a “worker” under workers’ compensation legislation. See our article on who is considered a “worker” in Queensland workers’ compensation claims, pursuant to recent legislative amendments: Worker v Independent Contractor 
• Your normal weekly earnings also apply.

Injuries affect everyone in different ways. A minor injury to some may impact another person to a much greater extent. This means, for example, that compensation payouts for a back injury will vary from person to person and case to case.

The purpose of a Common Law payment in a personal injury compensation claim is to compensate an injured party for the loss and damage suffered as a consequence of the injury.

• The more the injury or injuries impact upon your pre-accident lifestyle and employment, the more compensation you will receive.
• Because of the subjective nature of compensation payments for personal injury claims in Queensland, it is not possible to state a specific compensation amount for a certain injury.
• It will depend on what loss and damage you suffer because of that injury.
• Some of the more dominant factors that impact damages or compensation payments are the extent of the injury or injuries sustained as well as age, occupation, recreational interests and health of the injured party at the time of the accident occurring.

To give you an idea of what types of damages or compensation payments are being made in Common Law Claims for work injuries in Queensland, we have obtained the following data from QComp or Workers Compensation Regulator. This is the body that regulates work injury claims in Queensland:-

• There were 2986 new Common Law claims brought by injured workers in Queensland in the 2015 financial year;
• Average gross damages payment per claim was around $200,600;
• Where injury was rated at 0% impairment by Workcover — Common Law payments averaged around $160,000 to $260,000 (based on a cross-section of claims in the 2013 financial year);
• Where injury was rated at 5% to 10% impairment by WorkCover — Common law payments averaged around $213,000 to $468,000 (based on a cross-section of claims in the 2013 financial year);
• The average claim duration during the 2015 financial year was around 13 months.

Please note that these are average damages payments only and every case is different. For example, The Personal Injury Lawyers case summary database provides the case where a worker achieved $1.052 million damages for an injury assessed by WorkCover at 0% impairment: Austin v Parmalat Australia Ltd (2013)QSC 227.

Of course, in cases of very serious injury and catastrophic injuries such as brain injury, paraplegia or amputation, for example, compensation will be much higher than the figures discussed above. Extremely serious injuries will most likely result in compensation payments totalling millions of dollars.

(Work injury claim data for impairment assessments at 0% and 5 to 10% referred to above was taken from a cross-section of claims published in the Regulator’s 2015 Annual Report).

For Catastrophic Work Injuries, Is There an Entitlement to Lifetime Care and Support Under the NIIS?

The National Injury Insurance Scheme or NIIS, started in Queensland on 1 July 2016.

The purpose of the scheme is to meet the medical and care needs of those who suffer catastrophic injuries in accidents, whether through a motor vehicle accident, work accident, medical malpractice or some other form of accident.

Injuries such as severe burns, serious spinal cord injury (mainly involving paraplegia and quadriplegia cases), multiple amputations, permanent blindness and traumatic brain injury.

The scheme applies to workers who suffer catastrophic injury regardless of fault or age. The entitlements under the scheme include:

• Medical expenses;
• Rehabilitation expenses;
• Ambulance transportation;
• Pharmaceuticals;
• Dental;
• Prosthetics, aids and appliances;
• Care, including respite, attendant and domestic;
• Education and vocational training;
• Home and vehicle modifications.

If you are interested in learning more about the NIIS (The National Injury Insurance Scheme) and any entitlement you may have to lifetime care and support under the scheme.

To pursue your work injury claim and to ensure it is protected, you must comply with the procedural provisions as stipulated in the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.

Our workers’ compensation lawyers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast can guide you through the legal processes that you must comply with in order for you to protect and pursue any compensation entitlements you may have under such legislation and at Common Law.

Under workers’ compensation legislation in Queensland, if you have had a workers’ compensation claim, and you wish to proceed with a common law claim for damages for your injury, you need to be very careful what steps you take when your workers’ compensation claim is coming to an end.

In Queensland, the majority of injured workers are required to make an election at the end of their workers compensation claim as to whether they wish to proceed with a Common Law claim for damages.

If you take the wrong step in responding to this question, you could lose all rights to proceed with a Common Law claim and miss out on significant compensation.

You need to ensure that you contact The Personal Injury Lawyers for legal assistance prior to taking any steps in relation to your work injury so this does not happen to you.