Straight answers to the questions people ask us first.

A personal injury claim is the process of seeking compensation after you have been injured and someone else is responsible, or an insurance policy responds. Its purpose is to support your recovery and cover the financial impact of the injury: treatment, lost income, care, and the effect on your life.

Four kinds, all in Queensland: motor vehicle accident claims (drivers, passengers, riders and pedestrians, including hit-and-run, stolen and uninsured vehicles); workers' compensation claims (statutory WorkCover claims and damages claims against negligent employers, including injuries on the way to and from work); public liability claims (injuries in shopping centres, venues, rental properties, footpaths, parks and other people's premises); and TPD, income protection, death and terminal illness claims through superannuation or a policy you hold.

You can lodge most claims yourself, and some people do. The difficulty is that the insurer on the other side does this every day, the notice forms and deadlines are unforgiving, and the value of a claim is set by evidence that has to be gathered in the right order. Our first consultation is free and we will tell you plainly whether a lawyer will make a difference to your claim.

For car accident claims, the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), which regulates the CTP scheme, publishes figures on this. In 2024–25 about one in three CTP claimants lodged their claim directly with the insurer, without a lawyer, and those claims tended to finish sooner. MAIC's own explanation is that people often get a lawyer when their claim is more complex.

Finishing sooner is not the same as receiving more. A claim that settles before the injury has stabilised is valued before anyone knows its lasting effect, and once it is settled it cannot be reopened. Before you accept any offer, ask someone independent of the insurer what the claim is worth. We will do that for free at the first consultation, whether or not you go on to instruct us.

However suits you: by phone, by Zoom, at our Eight Mile Plains office, at our Brisbane City office by appointment, or at your home, the hospital, or wherever you feel is most convenient. We act for clients anywhere in Queensland.

Yes. We speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka and Malay as well as English, from the first call to the final settlement, without an interpreter in between.

Yes. You are free to change lawyers at any point. Your previous firm may hold your file until its costs are dealt with, which is usually arranged so that they are paid from the settlement at the end. We handle the transfer with them so that your claim keeps moving.

If your claim does not succeed, you pay no professional fees. In most cases you also pay none of the outlays we paid to run the claim, such as medical reports and court fees.

Our costs agreement sets out in writing exactly when outlays are payable, and in most cases they are not payable if the claim is unsuccessful.

Our professional fees are charged for the work actually done on your claim, not as a percentage of what you win, and they are only payable if the claim succeeds. Queensland law then caps what any lawyer can charge in a speculative personal injury claim at half of what you receive after refunds and outlays are deducted, so you can never come out with less than the lawyer. The costs agreement shows how fees are worked out, and you will know the net figure before you accept any offer.

Two kinds. Professional fees are for the lawyer's work: advice, notices, correspondence, negotiation and, if needed, court. Outlays (also called disbursements) are money paid to other people for things the claim needs: medical records and specialist reports, barristers, court filing fees, searches. We pay the outlays as we go. You pay no professional fees unless the claim succeeds, and in most cases no outlays either; the exceptions are set out in the costs agreement.

No. The first consultation is free, we pay the outlays as the claim runs, and our fees are only payable at the end, if the claim succeeds. You are not asked for money while you are recovering.

It should be, provided the agreement is clear about the things that matter: whether outlays are covered if you lose, what happens if you change lawyers part-way, and how fees are capped. Ours answers all three in writing before you sign, and we will walk you through it.

The court time limit is three years from the injury, or three years from your 18th birthday if you were a child. But earlier notice deadlines almost always apply depending on the claim type, and they are the ones that catch people out. The full guide is on our time limits page.

Notice must reach the insurer within nine months of the crash (or first symptoms), or within one month after first speaking with a lawyer about making a claim, whichever is earlier. If the vehicle cannot be identified, notice must be given within three months, and a claim against the Nominal Defendant is barred after nine months.

An application for WorkCover statutory compensation generally must be lodged within six months after your entitlement arises, and WorkCover aims to decide it within 20 business days. If a claim is rejected you have three months to ask for a review. A damages claim against a negligent employer must be started in court within three years of the injury.

Notice must be given to the person or business responsible within nine months of the incident (or first symptoms), or within one month after you instruct a lawyer, whichever is earlier. Court proceedings must be started within three years.

Not the strict notice periods that apply to injury claims, and people commonly claim years after stopping work. But cover can lapse when contributions stop, evidence gets harder to gather with time, and a decline letter starts its own clock for review. Start early.

Some deadlines run from the first appearance of symptoms rather than the accident date, depending on the claim type. If symptoms develop later, see a doctor and get advice early; it is still worth asking.

It depends on the injury, its effect on your work and life, the treatment you need and the type of claim, and we will not guess before we know the medical position. What we can do at the first meeting is tell you what the claim is likely to include, and, once the evidence is in, give you a candid range before any offer is considered.

Depending on the claim type: medical and treatment expenses, past and future; lost income and reduced capacity to earn, plus the superannuation on it; care and assistance, including from family, above the legal threshold; pain and suffering and the effect of the injury on your life; and travel, equipment and home modifications where the injury requires them.

It depends on the claim. In a CTP claim the insurer must fund reasonable rehabilitation once it accepts fault. In a WorkCover claim the statutory scheme pays treatment from the start. In a public liability claim there is no interim funding, so treatment runs through Medicare and your own cover and is recovered in the claim. We tell you which applies at the first meeting.

Most claims resolve within one to two years. The pace is set by your recovery, because a claim should not settle before the injury has stabilised and its lasting effect is known, and by whether fault or the value of the claim is disputed. We keep the other side to its deadlines so the file does not drift.

Almost certainly not. The great majority of claims resolve at or after a compulsory conference without a trial. We prepare every claim so that it could go to court if needed, which is also how a claim is valued properly.

Usually. Being partly at fault reduces compensation in proportion to your share of responsibility rather than ending the claim, and insurers routinely argue for a larger share than the facts support.

Not before you have advice. Early offers are made before the extent of your injury is known and are almost always lower than a properly prepared claim. Accepting one usually ends the claim for good.

Make sure everyone is safe and get medical help. Exchange names, phone numbers, registrations and insurance details with the other drivers, get the names of any witnesses, photograph the vehicles and the scene, and report the accident to the police. See a doctor even if you feel fine; some injuries show up days later. Then call us.

The CTP insurer of whichever vehicle was at fault, even if that is the car you were in and the driver is a friend or family member. The insurer pays, not the driver.

Yes. Where the vehicle at fault cannot be identified after reasonable enquiry, or was unregistered or uninsured, the claim is made against the Nominal Defendant, which stands in for the missing insurer. The deadlines are much shorter (three months to give notice), so call as soon as you can.

Not through CTP, which covers injury to people only. Damage to your vehicle is a separate matter against the at-fault driver or their property insurer, and we can point you in the right direction.

Whiplash is a neck injury caused by the sudden acceleration and deceleration of a collision. It is the most common injury in rear-end accidents, it can take weeks to show its full effect, and it is compensable in the same way as any other injury. See a doctor, keep your treatment records, and get advice early.

Any worker injured in the course of their work, where the work was a significant contributing factor, is entitled to statutory benefits, whoever was at fault. That includes injuries on the ordinary journey between home and work and during breaks, and gradual injuries such as repetitive strain, hearing loss and psychological injury.

Possibly. Having an ABN is not decisive; what matters is how the work is actually arranged: who controls the work, who supplies the equipment, whether you can subcontract, whether you are paid for time or for a result, and whether you carry the commercial risk. Many contractors are workers under the scheme. We can tell you quickly.

Report the injury to your employer, see a doctor and ask for a work capacity certificate, and lodge a claim with WorkCover Queensland (or your employer's self-insurer). Keep copies of everything. If anything about the claim is rejected or delayed, call us.

Weekly compensation for lost earnings, medical, hospital and pharmaceutical expenses, rehabilitation such as physiotherapy and psychology, travel to treatment, and a lump sum for permanent impairment once your injury has stabilised.

From your normal weekly earnings before the injury, under the award or agreement that applies to you, at a percentage that steps down over time. If the figure looks wrong, it can be reviewed.

Yes, where the employer, or someone the employer is responsible for, was negligent: an unsafe system of work, a known hazard left unfixed, inadequate training or supervision, a co-worker's carelessness. A damages claim is separate from the statutory claim, usually worth far more, and must be started within three years of the injury.

You have three months from the decision to ask the Workers' Compensation Regulator to review it, and a further appeal to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission after that. A rejection is not necessarily the end of the claim; there are options available, and the medical evidence matters at each step.

No. An employer cannot dismiss you because you made a workers' compensation claim, and cannot dismiss you because of the injury within twelve months of it. Making a claim is your legal right, and it is the insurer that pays, not your employer.

Not without advice. If your degree of permanent impairment is under 20 per cent, accepting the lump sum ends your right to claim damages, which are usually worth far more. You have a limited time to decide and a limited time to contest the percentage. Call us before you sign or the time runs.

A claim for an injury caused by a hazard that the owner or occupier of a place should have dealt with: a wet floor with no sign, a broken step, an uneven footpath, an unfenced pool, a dog that was known to bite. It covers shopping centres, venues, rental properties, schools, parks and council land, and it is paid by the responsible party's insurer.

That the person or business owed you a duty of care, that they breached it by failing to take reasonable steps against a foreseeable risk, and that the breach caused your injury. Cleaning logs, incident registers, maintenance records and CCTV usually decide it, and they sit with the other side, so getting to them early is much of the work.

The council may be, if the defect was one it knew about or should have found and repaired. Councils have particular defences about how they allocate maintenance, so the claim needs to be built with those in mind. Photographs of the defect with something for scale are especially valuable.

The owner, occupier or manager of the premises, and often the contractor responsible for cleaning or maintenance. At a private house the owner's home insurance usually responds, so you are not claiming against your friend personally.

Report it to the manager, owner or council and ask for it to be recorded; photograph the hazard and the area before it is cleaned or fixed; get the names of witnesses; see a doctor and describe exactly how it happened; keep every receipt. Then call us, because CCTV is often overwritten within weeks and a letter from a lawyer preserves it.

Yes, though it is harder, because the other side will say it never happened or happened differently. See a doctor now and tell them exactly how you were hurt, write down what happened while it is fresh, and go back and photograph the hazard if it is still there.

You can, but early settlements made without evidence and without knowing the full extent of the injury are almost always for far less than a properly prepared claim. Take advice first; the first conversation is free.

No. A decline is a decision by the fund or insurer, and it can be challenged: first through the fund's internal review, then through a free complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, and, where warranted, in court. Many declined claims are ultimately paid.

Often, yes. Most declines come down to evidence that describes a diagnosis but not what it stops you doing at work. A report from your treating doctor that addresses the policy's actual definition can change the outcome.

The policy and the complaints rules set their own timeframes for each step, and they are strict. Get advice as soon as the decline letter arrives rather than waiting.

Yes. TPD and income protection claims turn on the policy and the fund, not on where you live, so we act on them by phone and Zoom wherever you are.