Injury compensation lawyer Woodhouselee: threshold and beyond

In everyday speech, a serious injury is one that hurts a lot or takes a long time to heal. The CTP scheme uses narrower tests. The first is whether the injury is more than a threshold injury. The second, for some kinds of compensation, is how much permanent impairment it leaves, measured as whole person impairment. Pain matters to you, but the scheme looks at diagnosis and lasting effect.

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.

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.

It's easy to overstate the 10% line. You don't need more than 10% WPI to claim damages for past and future loss of earnings; you need an injury that's more than threshold, another driver at fault, and not to have been mostly at fault yourself. The 10% line decides pain and suffering, and it also affects some timing rules for a damages claim.

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%.

A crash can cause psychological injury as well as physical injury, and sometimes instead of it. Some psychological injuries are classed as threshold injuries; others are not, depending on the diagnosis. Anxiety, low mood, flashbacks or fear of driving are worth raising with your GP early, both for your own sake and so the injury is recorded and properly diagnosed.

Impairment is generally assessed once an injury has stabilised, meaning it's unlikely to change much with further treatment. Assessing too early can understate a serious injury. The insurer may arrange an assessment, your own doctors may give opinions, and if the insurer and you disagree about the degree of impairment, the Personal Injury Commission can carry out a medical assessment.

• How complete and current your medical records are
• Changes in your condition since the last report
• Whether you disagree with the result, and the deadline to say so

Serious injury claims rest on medical evidence gathered over time: hospital records, imaging, operation reports, specialist opinions, and treating doctors' notes that track your progress. Your own records add the human detail. Start collecting early, keep everything in date order, and make sure each doctor knows about all your injuries, not just the one they're treating.

• Hospital admission and discharge records
• Imaging reports, such as X-ray, CT or MRI, where done
• Every Certificate of Fitness, in order
• Records of how the injury affects your work