Compensation lawyer Unanderra: start with the right claim

Compensation after a NSW motor accident generally runs through CTP, the compulsory green slip scheme. It has two parts. Most people can claim statutory benefits, meaning weekly payments and treatment and care, regardless of who was at fault. Some can also claim common law damages, a lump sum, if another driver was at fault, they weren't mostly at fault and the injury is more than a threshold injury.

Three things shape what you can claim: who was at fault, how serious your injury is, and when the accident happened. Fault mostly affects damages and how long some benefits last. Seriousness decides whether your injury is treated as a threshold injury. The date decides which version of the rules applies, because the law changed for accidents from 1 December 2017 and again from 1 April 2023.

Most of a compensation lawyer's work is unglamorous. They read insurer letters closely, check them against the rules, request records from hospitals and treating practitioners, and put the evidence together in the order the scheme expects. When a decision goes against you, they can run the review or dispute. When an offer arrives, they weigh it against your losses. No lawyer can promise a particular result.

What a lawyer can't do is create evidence that doesn't exist. Your treating doctor's notes, the Certificate of Fitness and records of what the injury stops you doing carry most of the weight. A lawyer's value lies in knowing which of those the insurer will look at, which are missing, and how the rules for your accident date treat them.

• Checking insurer decisions against the rules for your accident date
• Negotiating with the insurer over a damages claim
• Arranging medical reports when the claim needs them

Road injury claims in NSW sit inside a scheme with its own language: statutory benefits, threshold injury, whole person impairment, the Personal Injury Commission. A lawyer who uses those words every day, whatever they call themselves, can tell you quickly where your claim stands. That familiarity counts for more than whichever title appears on their website.

Much of the confusion in a motor accident claim comes from vocabulary. A single letter can mention statutory benefits, a threshold injury and an internal review, each with a precise meaning. The short definitions below are general and simplified. If a word appears in a decision about your claim, it's worth checking exactly what it means for you.

• Statutory benefits: weekly payments and treatment and care that most injured people can claim regardless of fault
• Threshold injury: the term that replaced 'minor injury' in 2023, generally covering soft tissue and some psychological injuries
• Whole person impairment (WPI): a percentage rating of how much an injury affects you overall, assessed under set guidelines
• Case manager: the person at the insurer who handles your claim day to day
• Nominal Defendant: the fund that stands in when the vehicle was unidentified or uninsured

The help you need depends on where your claim is up to. Just after the crash, the priority is lodging and keeping records. While benefits are being paid, most questions are about payments and treatment. After a decision against you, the question becomes whether to challenge it. Later, a damages claim or an offer may be on the table. The pages linked below cover each stage in detail.

• Just after the crash: the CTP claims pages cover lodging and the early deadlines
• A decision against you: the claim denied page explains internal review and the Personal Injury Commission
• Not sure it's a CTP claim at all: the car accident claim page helps you work that out

Public liability and TPD claims come up often when people search for a compensation lawyer. Public liability usually covers injuries in a public place or on someone else's property, while TPD usually relates to insurance held through superannuation. Claims about medical treatment are separate again. None of them is usually something we help with. And if the only loss is to your car, CTP doesn't pay for it at all. For anything that began with a vehicle, start with the claim check.