Car Accident Lawyer Brisbane

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Car Accidents and Road Injuries

If you’ve been searching for “car accident lawyer Brisbane” or “motor vehicle accident lawyer Brisbane”, you’ve arrived at the right page!

Lockett McCullough Lawyers Brisbane can assist you wherever you are located in Queensland. We also offer home visits and hospital visits if this is more suitable to you.

Our experienced motor vehicle accident lawyers at Lockett McCullough Lawyers can give advice on a wide range of personal injury claim whether you are a driver, passenger, rider, pedestrian or cyclist. We offer “no win no fee” in approved cases – enquire now for a free, no obligation consultation to discuss your accident claims.

Compulsory Third Party (“CTP”) Insurance

If you have suffered an injury in a motor vehicle accident, you may be able to make claims through the Compulsory Third Party (“CTP”) insurance for the “at fault” vehicle.

In Queensland, all motor vehicles are required to be registered with the Department of Transport and Main Roads. As part of our registration fees, there are fees for CTP Insurance. CTP Insurance only covers compensation for injuries and does not cover property damage.

If you know the registration, and the owner of the vehicle has paid their registration fees, there is CTP insurance. The most common insurers are Suncorp, Allianz, RACQ, QBE Insurance.

CTP Insurance covers all types of vehicles which are required to hold registration and are being driven on a road. This includes cars, motorbikes and other types of vehicles.

What if I don’t know the registration or cannot locate the ‘at fault’ vehicle or the registration is not current?

In Queensland, is a government CTP Insurer called the “Nominal Defendant” which handles claims where: –

(a) You do not know the registration number of the ‘at fault’ vehicle? (ie a “hit and run”);

(b) If the car was not registered.

There are additional time limits and hurdles that you need to overcome in these cases. The Nominal Defendant will require you to conduct “proper search and inquiry” to find the vehicle.

Our experienced Brisbane car accident lawyers can assist you to claim against the Nominal Defendant.

Meeting - Motor vehicle accident lawyer Brisbane

Making a Motor Vehicle Accident Claim

In Queensland, a successful claim for a car accident can be made if you can prove the other driver was completely at fault. Our experienced car/motor vehicle accident lawyers can help you initial a claim against the CTP insurance company. You should seek legal advice as soon as possible as there are strict time limits enforced in these types of personal injury claims.

We want to know:

(a) What happened and who was at fault? We will need the registrations number of the “at fault” vehicle and the Queensland Police reference number.

(b) When did it happen?

(d) Your medical history

(e) Details of your work and/or work history?

The Steps

First Step

To make a claim, the first step is for you to provide to our expert car accident lawyers all the initial information that you can provide. This can include:

1. Details of the ‘at fault’ vehicle;

2. Reporting the motor vehicle accident to the police;

3. Details of any witnesses;

4. Documents and other evidence including:

Photographs;
Medical certificates / reports
Details of all your treating doctors, hospitals, or any allied health provider (ie physiotherapist)
payslips

Second Step

During the course of your claim, our experienced personal injury lawyers and car accident lawyers will investigate and gather all evidence that we need and will regularly seek updates from you and verify them with you so that we can accurately and thoroughly prepare your case.

We can then prepare the ‘initial notice’ called the Notice of Accident Claim (“NOAC”).

Third Step

The third step is called a “disclosure” phase where your personal injury lawyers gather evidence and gives a copy to the insurer. This includes documents like: –

(a) Your employment history and income tax records;

(b) Your medical history from your treating doctors and other medical or allied health professionals;

Once your injuries have been treated and stabilised, our experienced personal injury and car accident lawyers and the CTP Insurer will require you to be examined by an independent medical specialist (like an Orthopaedic Surgeon) who will conduct an examination of your injuries. This usually occurs between 9 – 12 months after your injuries as these medical specialists need to provide expert evidence about the permanent effects of your injuries.

Last Step

After this evidence is obtained, our experienced Brisbane car accident lawyers can undertake a detailed analysis of your claim.

Your claim will be set down for a “Compulsory Conference” which is essentially an informal face to face discussion with a claims officer for the CTP Insurer and at which time negotiations start in an effort to resolve your claim for compensation.

If your matter is unable to be settled at the Compulsory Conference stage, formal Court proceedings need to be filed in Court within 60 days following that conference.

Rehabilitation Expenses

Upon commencing a claim against a CTP Insurer for a motor vehicle incident a CTP insurer has certain obligations to fund the reasonable and appropriate costs of your rehabilitation.

What this means, is that the insurer, once they have admitted “fault” will agree to pay certain expenses that are required for you to rehabilitate from your car accident or road related injuries.

This might be for things like:

Costs of doctors including specialists;
Costs of surgery (on a private basis) if required;
Costs of rehabilitation including things like physiotherapy, counselling, exercise physiologist, recommended gym strengthening programmes;
Costs of home modifications (if required);
Costs of pharmaceutical expenses;
Costs of travel expenses.

What are the types of claim available?

There are four (4) broad categories of compensation available depending on the nature and extent of the injuries: –

1. Compensation for pain and suffering (called “General Damages”).

This is compensation for the pain and suffering you have experienced as a result of your injury.

This sum is dependent on the extent of your injury (ie is your injury categorised as minor, moderate, severe, extreme) and the level of permanent impairment assigned by the relevant expert medical practitioners who have conducted an assessment of your injuries during the course of your claim.

2. Compensation for loss of wages or loss of earning capacity (past and future).

If you were working at the time of your car accident and you required time off work to recuperate from your injury – this is generally your claim for past loss of wages.

Future loss of wages or loss of earning capacity is assessed dependent on the consequence of your injuries on your capacity to work and how those injuries impact on your ability to perform your role or if they reduce your capacity for work (ie you may only be able to manage less days/hours).

3. Compensation for loss of superannuation (past and future).

4. Compensation for expenses including:

Medical expenses;
Rehabilitation expenses
Aids and equipment costs;
Travel expenses;
Pharmaceutical expenses.

5. Compensation for domestic assistance (paid or unpaid)

Unpaid domestic assistance is for assistance provided to you free of charge by family and friends to take over your personal cares and/or activities of daily living.

Commercial service providers like gardeners, cleaners or nurses whom you may pay to undertake certain activities of daily living as a result of your car accident or road related injuries may be compensated if it relates to your injuries.

Should I pursue a compensation claim?

The factors that you should consider in relation to whether or not you think pursuing a claim is worthwhile should be: –

(a) How bad is my injury?

(b) Is my injury causing me to lose time at work – now or in the future?

Going to Court?

Our experienced Brisbane car accident lawyers are often asked – will my claim go to Court?

The short answer is it is highly unlikely. Most of these types of cases settle out of court.

There are occasions during the course of a compensation claim that your lawyer may need to file what we call an “interim application” which could relate to the payment of rehabilitation expenses, or disclosure of certain documents or evidence.

However, you may not need to attend these types of hearings and our experienced car accident and compensation lawyers can attend on your behalf.

How long will your claim take to settle?

How long a car accident claim takes ultimately depends on the level of seriousness of your injury. The more serious injuries (such as brain injuries or spinal cord injuries) will take far longer than the ‘average’ claim.

Other factors which may delay the progress of a claim include the attitude of the CTP Insurer to your claim or if there is delay in the court process.

Usually, the majority of claims will usually take between 12 months – 2 years to settle out of Court. If your matter nears a trial in Court or goes to Court, this could add an additional 12 months to the resolution of your claim.

National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland (“NIIS Q”)

Our Brisbane car accident or motor vehicle accident lawyers are experienced in serious personal injuries sustained in a car accident or road-related injury.

These types of injuries include:

Brain/head injury;
Spinal cord injury;
Certain levels of amputations;
Some types of burn injury.

In Queensland, there is a new scheme available for people who have suffered a serious personal injury in a car accident to access costs associated with lifetime treatment care and support.

You (or your doctors in certain cases) need to apply to the NIIS as an “Interim Participant” within 12 months of the date of your car accident to access these benefits.

Importantly, this scheme also operates if you have suffered “serious personal injury” in a car accident or road related accident which was the result of your negligence.

Time Limits

Strict time limits apply for pursuing car accident claims in Queensland.

To commence the claims process, you must send a Notice of Accident Claim (“NOAC”) form to the compulsory third party insurance company: –

(a) Within one (1) month of consulting a lawyer (this includes the day you speak to a lawyer on the phone about your potential claim); or

(b) Within nine (9) months of the date of your car accident where there is an identified vehicle.

If you haven’t sent a NOAC within the time limit, you may still be able to pursue your claim if you have a “reasonable excuse” for delay.

If the vehicle is unregistered or unknown – you must send a NOAC to the Nominal Defendant within 3 months of the date of your motor vehicle incident.

Most importantly, in Queensland you must commence a claim for personal injuries within three (3) years of the date of your injury.

If you are under the age of 18 years when you suffered your car accident you must commence your claim before your 21st birthday.

Our Services

We can provide advice on any time of negligence claims including:

Superannuation, income protection and TPD claims;
Medical negligence;
Road and/or motor vehicle accident;
Work accident;
public liability accident;
Dependency actions;
Other personal injury or insurance claims (ie product liability);

Why Us?

We are a local law firm with offices in Brisbane and servicing greater Queensland. We are small business and supporting small business means you will get a better and more personalised customer service and you will get to speak with a lawyer about your matter. We will assist you every step of the way in your personal injury claim.

No Win No Fee

Lockett McCullough Lawyers Brisbane offers “no win no fee” payment arrangements for motor vehicle or car accident matters.

It means that you don’t pay anything upfront for your legal fees or expenses in pursuing your claim. “No win no fee” means that you don’t need to pay upfront and you do not need to pay us until you receive lump sum compensation.

In these approved cases, this will include your professional legal costs and expenses required to pursue your insurance claims (ie costs for expert medical evidence)

You can contact us and speak with one of our motor vehicle and personal injury lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation and find out how we can assist you and the prospects of success and it won’t cost you anything upfront.

Lockett McCullough Lawyers Brisbane Office Locations

Our car accident lawyers service all of Queensland. We can offer phone consultations, video-conferencing or in-person consultations if this suits you on a “no win no fee” basis. If you can’t come to our office, we can come to you! We offer home consultations or hospital consultations. We can even meet you at your local coffee shop near your home.

Our office locations are:

Contact Us

Our team of professional Brisbane car accident lawyer at Lockett McCullough Lawyers can offer a no obligation free consultation to discuss your claims and how we may be able to assist in your car accident law matter.