It’s normal to wonder, "What can I claim?"
When suffering from an injury, it’s only natural to think about travelling down the compensation claim road. But just what exactly can you claim?
That answer can be complex, as each personal injury claim is unique to each person. Typically speaking though, you can claim for:
- General damages
- Past and future economic loss
- Medical and rehabilitation expenses
- Care and assistance
- Superannuation losses
- Pain and suffering
You’re welcome to call us for a free personal injury case review and we’ll be happy to help where we can. There is no cost or obligation to assess your claim.
Can I get personal injury compensation?
What types of common law damages can I claim for?
These common law damages in personal injury proceedings are made up of a number of elements or what we call, “Heads of Damage” which the Court allocates an amount of damages for each head of damage. These are as follows:
General damages
Also known as “damages for pain & suffering and loss of enjoyment of life”.
This element of your damages is for the pain and restriction you suffer because of your injuries, and how they have impacted upon your pre-injury lifestyle.
In Queensland, claims for compensation for personal injury are generally governed by QLD legislation. This legislation stipulates limits that can be claimed according to the dominant injury suffered and the extent of injury.
Loss of past and future income
If, because of your injuries, you have had to stop work, lost time from work or suffered some other loss of earning capacity, and you have sustained a loss of income due to this, then you are entitled to claim personal injury compensation for such loss.
And if it is likely that such loss of income is going to continue into the future because of your injuries, then you are also entitled to claim for personal injury for that future loss.
Past and future medical and rehabilitation expenses
If you have incurred expenses for medical or rehabilitation treatment, pharmaceuticals, medical aids, ergonomic aids, vehicle or home modifications or any other reasonable out of pocket expense because of your injuries, then you are entitled to claim reimbursement for those expenses.
Similarly, if you are likely to incur these types of expenses in the future because of your injuries, then you are also entitled to claim an appropriate sum reflecting the cost of those future expenses.
Gratuitous or paid care and assistance
If, because of your injuries, you are unable to undertake daily tasks of daily living such as personal care, transportation or domestic duties (e.g. cleaning your home, doing laundry, caring for your lawns and garden or house maintenance), and you did those tasks yourself prior to your injury occurring, then you may be entitled to claim an amount of damages for the care provided to you.
The care can be provided to you by friends, neighbours or relatives, or you may have engaged paid services to undertake the tasks you could not perform yourself due to your injury.
Legislation in Queensland imposes threshold care requirements in cases of motor accident injury or in public liability claims, and there are increased restrictions on care claims when claiming for a work injury.
Loss of past and future superannuation benefits
Superannuation (or “super”) is the compulsory process where you or your employer place a percentage into a fund to support your financial needs in retirement.
If you have suffered past and future loss of income as a result of your injuries, then you are also entitled to claim for the loss of superannuation associated with such loss.
Interest
Where you have suffered past monetary loss or incurred expenses due to your injuries, then generally at law you are entitled to claim the interest on those losses from the date they occurred to when your claim resolves. In some cases, interest is also payable on past general damages. In most personal injury cases in Queensland, however, interest entitlements are governed by statute.
In addition to loss of interest, you are also entitled to claim for the loss of superannuation associated with such loss. Due to what’s at stake here, namely your personal welfare and future livelihood, it’s essential to have experienced accident compensation lawyers fighting to help you claim compensation for injuries.
A personal injury lawyer will be able to assist you throughout the entire personal injury claims process to make sure you’re claiming everything you can. It’s important to seek legal advice if you’re considering going forward with a personal injury claim.
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What am I entitled to under workers' compensation benefits?
If your injury occurred on the way to or from work, during work or in a work break, you may be entitled to Workers’ Compensation Benefits (also known as Workcover Benefits or Statutory Benefits) including:
This depends entirely on the circumstances of your case.
To determine an appropriate amount of compensation, we will consider all expenses associated with your injuries as well as any non-financial impacts.
These can include:
- Medical bills
- Ongoing medical expenses (such as rehabilitation and physiotherapy)
- Retraining (if your injuries prohibit you from returning to work in your former capacity)
- Pain and suffering
Regardless of the seriousness of your injuries, you can trust us to try and secure the compensation you are entitled to.
See our video on this page or see more about how much compensation you may get for your injury.
Payment of 85% of average base gross wage per week whilst unable to work and in some cases, workers are entitled to full payment of their lost wages where this is stipulated in Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.
This is the costs for travel to and from treatment and to purchase pharmaceuticals and aids etc.
This is at the end of a workers’ compensation claim, a worker can request their injuries be assessed for permanent impairment.
According to that impairment assessment, the injuries sustained in the work event, are allocated a sum of money by way of lump sum compensation for the work injury.
This offer will be contained in the Notice of Assessment.
These compensation amounts are usually very low and do not include any compensation for any income the worker has lost or will lose in the future due to their injuries, or any medical expenses they may incur in the future.
In most cases, if the worker takes the lump sum offer, then they cannot sue for their injuries and they can make no further workers’ compensation claims for that injury in the future.
How much compensation did other people get awarded for their injuries?
To help you understand more how much other people were awarded for their personal injury law claims, (who may have similar injuries to you) we pulled together some helpful, real life personal injury payout examples..
These include compensation for injury at work as well as car accident injuries, workplace injury and slips, trips and falls. You may have suffered an injury that means that you can’t return to work. We assess the type of injury that you have suffered and will look at current medical reports, the costs of your future medical treatment, along with important factors such as whether you are left with a total and permanent disability.
How much compensation will I get for my accident?
If you seek compensation, our compensation calculator gives a basic indication how much compensation you may be able to claim.