Whitmans Lawyers, Brisbane
Personal injury claims in Queensland
Find out where you stand.
Tell us what happened and we will tell you whether you have a claim, what the process involves, and how long you have to act.
Areas of practice
How a personal injury claim works
Most Queensland personal injury claims never reach a courtroom. The legislation requires the parties to exchange information, obtain medical evidence and attend a compulsory conference before proceedings can be started, and very few claims survive that process without resolving.
- 01 First conversation Tell us what happened and roughly when. We’ll tell you whether there’s a claim and whether anything is urgent.
- 02 Notices and evidence We give the notices the scheme requires, then start gathering your medical, employment and income records.
- 03 Assessment Specialists examine you and report on your injuries, your prognosis, and what work you can realistically do. There is usually more than one opinion.
- 04 Negotiation Most claims resolve at a compulsory conference, before anyone files anything in a court.
- 05 Court, if needed If it doesn’t resolve, proceedings are started. Even then, most matters settle before trial.
Who you will deal with
Our people →Your matter is run by one of these people, and it’s the same one from the first call to the settlement.
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⟨(07) 3000 0003⟩Most people know about one deadline. There are several.
A claim doesn’t run to a single due date. It runs to a web of them, set off by different events and falling due at different times.
The one people have heard of, the cut-off for starting a court case, is usually the last to fall. The ones that catch people out are earlier and quieter, and they tend to fall due while you’re still being treated and still don’t know how bad things are.
Miss an early one and there’s often a way back. Miss the last one and there usually isn’t.
How we charge
We act for most personal injury clients on a no win, no fee basis. It means we are not paid our professional fees unless your claim succeeds.
Beyond that the detail varies, between firms and between types of claim, so we take you through exactly how it works on your matter before you sign anything.
Most of what slows a claim down isn’t legal work
It’s the file sitting in an inbox. The letter that took nine days to go out. The update you rang three times to get.
We built the firm to strip out as much of that as we could. You can see your file whenever you want to look. You hear from us whether or not anything has moved. And you don’t have to come into the city to run a claim.
The jargon, translated
Claims come with a lot of paperwork, and most of it is written for lawyers rather than you. If you have been sent something referring to a Notice of Assessment, an ISV, a compulsory conference or a mandatory final offer, our glossary explains what each of those is and what it means for your claim.
Glossary →
Common questions
Can I claim if it was partly my fault? Will I have to go to court? Do I have to pay back Centrelink? Can the insurer film me?
Common questions →
Recent articles
All articles →⟨three most recent resources articles⟩
Contact
07 3132 9555
Brisbane, Queensland
We assess new enquiries at no cost.