Sutherland injury compensation lawyer: serious injuries

People are often surprised by how technical WPI is. It is assessed under guidelines that rate specific impairments, such as lost movement in a joint, and express the result as a whole-body percentage. More than 10% is the key line in CTP claims, because damages for non-economic loss, meaning pain and suffering, are only available above it. Loss of earnings doesn't need that level.

Because so much can turn on a few percentage points, WPI assessments are often contested. Reports prepared for you, for the insurer and, if there's a dispute, by a medical assessor through the Personal Injury Commission may reach different figures. Keep every report, and get advice before accepting an assessment you think is wrong.

The scheme treats psychological injury seriously, but it still sorts it by diagnosis. A threshold psychological injury is generally handled like a threshold physical one. A more serious diagnosed condition may take the claim beyond the threshold. Because the difference turns on the diagnosis, what is on record, and when it was recorded, can matter a great deal.

Weekly payments cover lost income for a limited time. For a serious injury, the bigger question is the future: will you be able to return to your old job, at the same hours and pay? If not, a damages claim may include past and future economic loss, provided the conditions for damages are met. That part of a claim doesn't depend on WPI above 10%.

The definition works by exclusion. An injury is generally threshold if it is soft tissue damage with no nerve damage and no torn tendon, ligament, meniscus or cartilage, whether the tear is complete or not, or if it is a psychological injury the scheme classes as threshold. Injuries outside that description, such as fractures, torn ligaments or brain injuries, are generally more than threshold.

The line also decides whether common law damages are open. With only a threshold injury, they generally aren't. With a more serious injury, you may be able to claim damages if another driver was at fault and you weren't mostly at fault. That is why a threshold decision is often the most important decision the insurer makes about a serious injury.

The most persuasive serious injury claims usually have consistent evidence: the same injuries described the same way from the first record to the last, with no unexplained gaps. That consistency comes from giving the full story every time you describe the injury. If a report leaves something out, raise it rather than letting it pass, and keep a note of when you did.

• Every insurer decision about the injury, with its date
• Any reports prepared for the claim
• Every Certificate of Fitness, in order
• Any impairment assessment, and your response to it