Injured in a Motor Vehicle Accident?

We are often contacted by people who have sustained injury in a motor vehicle accident asking for advice as to what they should do and what their rights are.

If you are unlucky enough to sustain injury in a motor vehicle accident the first thing you should do is seek appropriate medical advice and treatment.

All States in Australia have Compulsory Third Party (“CTP”) insurance.  CTP insurance cover forms part of the registration on every vehicle.  CTP cover will be available to injured persons even if a vehicle is unregistered, although in that case the Nominal Defendant becomes liable as if it were the CTP insurer.

CTP insurance is only concerned with personal injury arising from motor vehicle accidents and does not cover any property damage.

The first step if you are injured is to contact a Mackay personal injury lawyer and complete a Motor Accident Notice of Claim Form and provide that to the CTP insurer together with a Medical Certificate in the approved form.

Ideally this should be done as soon as possible as the CTP insurer can then be asked to fund rehabilitation and medical treatment costs.

There is a time limit to give the claim form which is either nine months from the date of accident or one month after retaining a lawyer.

In order to complete the claim form you will need the registration number of the at fault vehicle.  If you do not have the registration number a solicitor will be able to assist in obtaining this information together with the Police Report.

A claim will usually be settled by negotiation with the CTP insurer.  How quickly this happens usually depends on the nature of your  injury and how long it takes to recover, or for the injury to be considered stable.