Are you injured from an accident? In Australia, you can claim for a compensation for injuries that arose out of an accident that is not your fault or partly your fault. In this article, we'll guide you through when, how, and what you can claim for a compensation.
What Types of Accidents and Injuries Can You Claim for a Compensation?
In Queensland or any other States and Territories in Australia, you can claim for a compensation for injuries that arose out of an accident that is not your fault or partly your fault. Types of accidents include a slip and fall accident in a shopping centre or a public building, work-related accidents, motor vehicle accidents and any other accidents that happened because someone else’s fault. The injury doesn’t necessarily have to look serious on the outside to make a claim. If the injury in some way affect your daily living, work and incurs medical expenses, you may be able to make a claim.
Here is a brief overview of types of accidents that many people claim for a compensation. Of course, it is best to discuss with a lawyer with experiences in personal injuries law.
Work Accidents
Usually as an employee, regardless of whether you’re full-time, part-time or casual, you could make a workers compensation claim if you suffered an injury in course of work. Injury can arise from a single event or over a period of time. Injury includes a muscle injury, joint injury, spine injury, fracture, full or partial amputation of your body, loss of hearing, and psychological and stress-related conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Injury also includes a disease contracted in workplace; aggravation of an injury, a disease or a medical condition; death from an injury, a disease, or an aggravation of an injury, a disease, or a medical condition; injuries suffered from travelling to or from work, or from a place to another place at work. But with psychological and stress-related injury, you must be able to prove that the injury arose out of employer’s unreasonable management or reasonable management taken in unreasonable way.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
If you’re involved in a car accident at someone else’s fault and resulted in an injury, you can make a claim against that driver’s CTP insurer. If you were a passenger and your driver was at fault, you can make a CTP claim against the vehicle you were in. Usually, injury occurs from a collision with another car. But in Queensland and some of other States and Territories, you can also make a claim if the injury resulted from an action taken to avoid a collision with another car. Also, you could make a claim if an injury resulted from a car running out of control or a defect in a car causing loss of control while it is being driven. You can also make a claim if you sustained an injury as a pedestrian or a bicycle rider if another car has negligently hit you. From a soft tissue injury to a catastrophic injury, if the injury is caused by the accident, you can make a claim for compensation.
Other Types of Accidents (including a slip and fall in a public place)
Any accident caused you an injury on public or private property, you may be able to make a claim for compensation if you can show that the accident was caused by other person’s fault. Examples of such accidents are an injury caused by:
- a slip and fall at a shopping centre, hotels, theme parks, supermarkets, retail stores
- a defective or faulty product
- an expected risk at rental premises, petrol station, car parks, hospitals
- other people’s animal attack
- a criminal activity.
Compensation includes pain and suffering, hospital, medical and rehabilitation expenses, past and future economic loss, and past and future domestic care. However, you must be able to show that such compensation resulted from an injury caused by the accident.
TPD Claims
You may be able to make a Total and Permanent Disability or Disablement (TPD) claim if an injury or illness has resulted in an incapacity of your usual work. TPD claim is made against an insurance company associated with your superannuation fund. This is called a TPD insurance. If you are successful in a TPD claim, your insurance company will offer you a lump sum payment. However, you must note that such payment is regulated by the terms of the policy of your TPD insurance. For a TPD claim, your insurance company will require you to show a level of disability. Usually, such level of disability need to largely affect your work in order to be entitled to a compensation.
Conclusion
Any personal injury claims (except TPD claims) whether it occurred at work, on road or other places by someone else’s fault can be made even if your injury does not look severe on the outside. If it is considerable enough to affect your daily living and work, and incurs medical expenses you may want to contact a personal injury lawyer and discuss your situation.
At Park & Co Lawyers, our lawyers with a depth of personal injuries law experiences offer a free initial consultation to discuss your case. We also work on a no-win-no-fee basis which means if we don’t get paid unless we deliver you a result. You don’t need to pay upfront. Therefore, if you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Written by Paul Bae
If you have any enquiries, contact Paul at [email protected].
[ Park & Co Lawyers – Disclaimer ]
Please note that the above is to be taken as a general guide only, and does not constitute legal advice in any respect. It does not reflect any changes in the relevant law or authorities since the date of publication.
Contact Us Today
We are experienced in the different areas of personal injury claims. We work on a no-win-no-fee basis which means that if you don’t win, you don’t have to pay our legal fees. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We will discuss your case and make sure you know about your legal rights.
Contact us: 07 3345 6665 / [email protected]
