Workers compensation lawyers

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.

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, we can make sure you’re aware of the 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.

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 does not just mean suffering physical harm in the workplace. For example, a work injury can be stress-related whereby you are suffering symptoms of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness.

People sometimes think that because they have suffered what they consider to be a simple or minor injury, such as a whiplash or jarring injury which seems to improve in the weeks or months after the accident, that it is not worthwhile making a claim or there is no need to claim.

Unfortunately, what often appears to be a simple whiplash injury or strain can end up being quite debilitating. For instance, whiplash injuries to the cervical spine (neck) can result in recurrent headaches or migraines, recurrent muscle spasm and ongoing pain and restriction in the neck, upper back, shoulders and arms.

Similarly, a whiplash or jarring injury to the back can result in long-term lower back issues, with problems sitting, standing or walking for extended periods of time and ongoing back pain and stiffness. What is thought at first to be a minor shoulder injury can result in the need for surgery, or frozen shoulder syndrome. Sometimes, the extent of the injury is not seen until many months or even years after the accident and can deteriorate over time.

This can be very debilitating on everyday functioning and employment, making it crucially important to seek compensation payouts for any back injury sustained at work.

Make sure you take the steps required to protect yourself if you have suffered any work accident injury, even if you consider it to be a simple or minor injury, as this may not be the case in the future.

Please note time limits apply to your claim.

If you have sustained a workplace injury you may be entitled to the following payments, irrespective of fault or responsibility:

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

• Medical and Rehabilitation Expenses
• Wage Benefits
• Lump Sum Compensation

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 on 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 upon 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.

• 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.