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Have you or a loved one been injured in a road accident? If so, you may have grounds for a road accident personal injury claim to help pay for your medical bills and other damages. Having a qualified car accident injury lawyer on your side can help you obtain the compensation to which you are entitled.
A car accident can be life-changing. Even if physical injuries heal, psychological trauma can follow you for years after an accident. It’s important that you receive appropriate compensation for all of your injuries and costs associated with a road traffic accident, especially if you were not majorly at fault (or at all).
Following certain steps from the moment of the accident onward can increase your chances of receiving fair compensation. Here’s everything you need to know about how to proceed if you have been injured in a car accident and need to file a personal injury claim.
What to do if you are in a motor vehicle accident
If you are involved in a road accident, it’s vital that you gather certain information before anyone leaves the scene. Even if no one appears injured and damage to vehicles is minimal, your insurer will need certain data.
The most common types of accidents happen due to distracted driving. One car may rear-end another, a vehicle driver may fail to give right of way or a car may run afoul of a transport vehicle and incur major damage. Failing to give way in a roundabout or stop at an intersection are also common causes of road accidents.
You are required by law to stop and render aid in case of an accident, so pull over as far out of traffic as possible and get out to learn if anyone else is injured (assuming you yourself are mainly unharmed and mobile). If there is any injury or major damage to a vehicle (amounting more than $3,000) you are obligated to inform the police.
You must clear vehicles from the roadway if possible and try to clear scrap metal or broken glass from the road as best you can. Make sure to mark the position of each vehicle before moving them, and take photos if possible to indicate the direction each car was facing and its position relative to the other vehicle.
You should obtain the name, phone number and address of the other driver and the registration number of the car, as well as any additional insurance details. You should also provide your own information to the other driver, but do not admit any fault at the scene of the motor vehicle accident.
If you are involved in a transport accident, get as much information as possible from the driver of the transport vehicle. If the driver of the other vehicle appears to be under the influence, police should be called and efforts made to ensure the intoxicated individual doesn’t flee the scene.
If you have suffered a personal injury, no matter how minor, you should seek medical attention. You should also have follow-up care in the days after an accident as adrenalin can mask symptoms and spine or neck pain can show up in the days after a vehicle accident.
Filing with a CTP insurer is the first step in gaining compensation for your road accident injury. Each state and territory is governed by its own Insurance Commission and you will need to lodge your claim in the correct place; typically where the at-fault driver’s vehicle is registered.
If you are the victim of a hit-and-run accident, you can file against a Nominal Defendant in the National Insurance Scheme in the state or territory where the accident took place. You will need the police report with a case number, so make sure you report the car accident to the local police station, not Policelink.
You may be entitled to compensation above and beyond medical bills and time away from work (lost wages and superannuation). Your solicitor can help you determine which insurer and scheme is appropriate for lodging your accident claim, and if you have additional recourse.
You should start the accident claim process as soon as possible after realising you have an injury from a road accident. Most personal injury claims must be filed within three years of the date of the injury or the day the injury was discovered.
In some jurisdictions, there may be a tighter window for lodging a claim against a specific CTP insurer. Make sure you file as soon as you know the scope of your injury to ensure you have the best chance of compensation.
The funds for a typical scheme claim are typically capped at $5,000. Claims lodged with the Magistrate’s Court could have a much higher cap, around $150,000 in most cases. The more firmly you can prove you were not at fault, the better your case, but even if you were slightly at fault you may still have a valid claim.
To lodge a CTP claim, fill out a claim form with the at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer, which you can discover based on the number plate of the at-fault vehicle. For unknown or unregistered vehicles (or in cases when a driver did a runner before you obtained the information), your claim must be lodged under the Nominal Defendant Scheme.
Once your claim is lodged, the Regulator will hand off your case to a CTP insurer representative, who will require that you fill out an additional injury claim form. We typically try to settle with an insurer quickly. However, if an offer is made that is very low, we are prepared to take the case to court.
You can suffer almost any type of injury in a car accident, especially if you are not wearing your seatbelt. Assuming you were wearing restraints while in the car, and that you obeyed all traffic laws, your accident injury is likely to be related to the force on your body of the car making a sudden stop or experiencing an impact.
Whiplash claims and spinal cord injury claims are the most common types of road accident injuries, but they may not show up right away. This is why it is vital to seek medical care and ask for scans if you have any tenderness or pain in the days following your accident. Proving your injury came from the accident is critical to your personal injury claim.
If you suffer a severe spinal cord injury, there are special schemes available to you. Your solicitor can tell you if you qualify for spinal cord injury accident compensation.
Other common injuries you might suffer in a car accident include head injuries, cuts from broken and flying glass or plastic, crush injuries to the legs or chest and psychological damage from the event itself. It’s estimated that one or two out of every five accident victims has lasting post-traumatic stress disorder from the crash.
A personal injury compensation claim can include awards for both medical bills and for economic loss. It’s not just the cost of medical care that impacts road traffic accident victims, but time off of work and the loss of superannuation contributions can also have far-reaching effects.
In many cases, an insurer will make a fast offer and pressure you to accept it quickly, perhaps before the full scope of your motor accident injuries has been realised. We urge you to speak with a car accident lawyer before accepting any initial offer related to a motor vehicle accident claim.
It’s extremely common for people who don’t have representation to be lied to and misled into accepting a very low offer. You could find yourself accepting a few thousand dollars when your compensation claim should really run into the tens of thousands. By enlisting the help of a qualified personal injury lawyer in the wake of a traffic accident, you protect yourself.
At Gerard Malouf & Partners, we work on a no-win, no-fee basis. One of our personal injury lawyers will be happy to meet with you, review all the details of your accident, and estimate how much you should receive in compensation for your personal injury claim. You won’t owe us any legal fees unless we secure your car accident compensation, so you have a very low risk and everything to gain by pursuing an accident claim.
In most cases, we can settle your claim by getting the insurer to make a decent offer as part of a mediated settlement. The Court prefers it when cases can be settled privately, but this doesn’t mean we aren’t prepared to take your course through the entire process if need be.
We have all of the resources that are required to support you. Our policy is to treat each client, no matter the size of their claim, like our most important case. This means we’ll be available to talk to you about your claim, by your side at every step of the process, and fully committed to winning you every dollar you deserve to help you recover from your car accident.
We are one of the largest compensation claims specialists in Australia, winning over $4 billion for our clients. Please contact Gerard Malouf & Partners today for no-obligation legal advice about your claim.
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