What compensation will I get for my personal injury claim?

The amount of compensation you will receive for your injuries will depend on the extent of your injuries. Additionally how much your injuries have affected your pre-injury lifestyle, activities of daily living, and employment. Whether your claim will be one worth pursuing, will depend on these factors:

1. Whether your injuries have resulted in ongoing symptoms, that is, do you have ongoing pain, spasm, altered sensation, restriction or loss of function because of your injuries;

2. Whether your injuries interfere with your activities of daily living. For example, do your injuries interfere with you looking after your own grooming and personal care , or with cleaning and maintaining your home, vehicle or garden. Do you need help with these tasks now?

3. Whether your injuries interfere with the social or recreational activities you used to enjoy doing previously, before you sustained your injuries. For example, you may no longer be able to go dancing with your partner, or fishing with your mates, or if you do try to do these activities, you suffer pain afterwards so you have limited your participation in such outings or you just don’t do them at all anymore;

4. Whether you need ongoing treatment or medications for your injuries. For example, you need to take pain medication or anti-inflammatory regularly, or your doctor tells you that surgery will be needed in the future for your injuries, or you find you need physio or massage regularly to help relieve pain and spasm caused by your injuries;

5. Whether you need medical aids, ergonomic devices or modifications to your home or vehicle because of your injuries now. For example, you may need long handled pick up sticks, Orthotics for your footwear, back supports or braces, a walking stick or ramps in your home because you need a wheelchair;

6. Whether your injuries will interfere in some way with you undertaking your employment. For example:

• Do your injuries cause you pain whilst doing your work;
• Are you unable to perform certain work duties because of your injuries;
• Do you need to reduce your work hours because you are limited by your injuries; or
• Are you no longer able to work in your normal employment or at all?

7. Age – the longer you will have to endure your injuries and the problems you experience because of them, the more compensation you will receive. Similarly. the longer your injuries impact on your capacity to earn an income, the more compensation you are likely to receive and the same thing applies with future medical treatment needs and the need for care and assistance in a claim;

8. Your health prior to you sustaining your injuries – obviously a fit, healthy person who sustains injury in an accident will receive greater compensation than a person who had a lot of medical problems that already caused them restriction in what they could do prior to sustaining their accident injuries.

Generally speaking yes. If you have suffered injury due to the fault of another, whether in a motor vehicle accident, an accident at work, an incidence of medical malpractice or a slip and fall in a public place, then in the majority of cases, even with a minor injury, it is very likely you will have a personal injury claim worth pursuing.

It can be, especially if the case that:

• You sustained a serious injury;

• You sustained a minor injury that interferes with your work in some way. For example:

  • Your injury causes you pain whilst doing your work;
  • Stops you from being able to do your work duties in some way;
  • Reduces your capacity to work your normal hours;or
  • Means you will have to take time off here and there for flare ups in the future;

• An injury that results in you needing assistance with your personal care or your domestic duties (e.g. your personal care tasks, or tasks involving cleaning and maintaining your home, motor vehicle or yard).

A lot of people think that just because they have sustained a minor injury, like for example, a whiplash injury, it’s not worth bringing a compensation claim because the compensation payment will be minor and just not worth the hassle involved. However, this is just not true in most cases. A recent example;

• A 53 year old client, who worked as a data processor, sustained a minor whiplash injury to her neck, when involved in a motor vehicle accident at High gate Hill in Brisbane on her way to work. A car just suddenly pulled out in front of her, leaving her no time to stop and a collision occurred.

• The client had a couple of days off work following the accident and after a few weeks her neck injury seemed to resolve. The client told us that she would still get some pain and a stiff neck if she did a lot of exertive activity. The client was not certain if she wanted to bring a claim but finally she made the decision to do so.

• We settled her claim with the CTP insurer of the at fault vehicle, receiving $110,000 in compensation for her whiplash injury and the client was very pleased that she ended up bringing her claim. The client could now take time off to heal properly with compensation to fall back on.