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Sustaining a personal injury can be an incredibly challenging time, leaving you not only unable to do the things that you love but also may leave you unable to work for a large amount of time. Therefore, lodging a personal injury claim can be crucial to ensuring peace of mind, while you recover from your injury.
Step 1: Obtain Legal advice
The first step following any personal injury should be to obtain legal advice. There are different laws covering the different types of personal injuries claims, including injuries resulting from work, motor vehicle accidents, crime and public facilities. A lawyer can help guide you through the specific requirements and time limits involved in making each individual claim.
The main compensation laws for personal injury in Australia are:
- Workers compensation for injury
- Motor vehicle accident compensation
- Public liability compensation (injuries in public places such as shopping centres)
Step 2: Review your limitation period- Ensure that your claim is lodged in time
For most types of injuries there are specific limitation dates for lodging a claim form. These dates can sometimes be extended, but will result in unnecessary delays in your claim. In most cases you will have three years from the date of the injury to commence legal action. Consultation with a lawyer as soon as practicable after the injury has occurred is advised however, to ensure the best possible chance of success in your personal injury claim.
Step 3: Gather evidence and financial records
If you have been injured as a result of another person’s negligence, including accidents occurring:
- in a motor vehicle
- at work
- in a public place
- by a faulty product
- through the negligence of a health provider
Then you may be entitled to receive compensation in the form of damages. The aim of compensation is to put the injured person as close as possible to the same position they would have been in had they not been injured. Therefore, it is important to gather evidence of your current medical treatment and any on-going treatment or care that you will be required to have as a result of the injury. This ensures that if you are successful in your claim, that your damages will reflect your past and future economic loss, medical expenses and in some cases receive compensation for your pain and suffering.
It is also important to gather evidence of the details of the accident, including how it could have been avoided if it was the result of someone’s negligence. For a common law claim for a personal injury to be successful, you must be able to establish that your injury was caused by the negligence of another. It may therefore be useful to find witnesses who observed the accident or to take images of the location where the injury occurred.
Step 4: Preparing your claim and staying informed
In order to speed up the process involved in personal injuries claims, it is recommended that following are collected and given to the lawyer involved in the claim:
- All relevant medical reports;
- Receipts for any medical expenses
- A travel log of all the times you have traveled to an appointment due to your injuries
- Details of all of the doctors you have visited regarding the injury
- A record of tasks you can no longer perform as a result of the accident
- The details of the insurance officer dealing with your claim if you have made an insurance claim
An average personal injury claim can take over a year to resolve, so it is recommended that you seek the advice of a legal professional in order to avoid further delays in receiving your compensation. Regularly documenting all medical expenses and changes in your condition can speed up the process and get you back on your feet faster.
About the Author
Laura Costello is in her third year of a Bachelor of Law/International Relations at Latrobe University. She is passionate about the law, the power of social media, and the ability to translate her knowledge of both common and complex legal topics to readers across a variety of mediums, in a way that is easy to understand.