Motor Vehicle Accidents

If police attended the scene and they were advised of any injuries, then they should open a case and generate a reference (a QP number).  Sometimes, this doesn't occur, or injuries are not readily apparent at the time, and you have to formally report the motor vehicle accident to the police yourself at a later date.

If you want to lodge a CTP claim, there must be a QP number.

If a QP number has not been generated, then you can ask that one be generated by:

1. Completing a Report of Traffic Incident to Police Form (PDF) and take it to a police station.
2. Report the crash to a police station in person, not Policelink, so that you can get the QP number.

If you are not confident filling out the form, or if fault for the accident is being contested or argued about by the other person involved, or fault is not "black and white" then please contact our Sunshine Coast office for assistance.

Once you have the QP number, you can then lodge the CTP claim with the CTP insurer.

To do this, you need to:

1. Find the correct CTP insurer using the registration number of the vehicle that caused the motor vehicle accident .
2. Complete the CTP Notice of Accident Claim Form (PDF) and lodge it with the correct CTP insurer.

You will need your doctor to complete a section of the form.

You will also need to print, sign and have the claim form witnessed by a JP or legal practitioner.

If you are not confident filling out and lodging the form, or if fault for the accident is being contested or argued about by the other person involved, or fault is not "black and white" then please contact our Sunshine Coast office for assistance.  

Many people recover from their injuries and get back to normal activities without treatment or rehabilitation, while others need rehabilitation such as surgery, physiotherapy or counselling to assist with their recovery.

Rehabilitation aims to return you to how you were before the accident, if this is not possible, then rehabilitation focuses on you obtaining new skills or new ways of doing things.

If the CTP insurer has accepted liability for your CTP claim or agreed to fund rehabilitation without admitting liability, the insurer will pay rehabilitation expenses provided they:

• are reasonable and appropriate,
• relate to the injuries from the motor vehicle accident, and
• are validated e.g. through receipts.

To arrange rehabilitation, you need to:

1. Get a referral from your doctor to their preferred rehabilitation provider or one you have chosen (or one of our preferred Sunshine Coast rehabilitation providers).
2. When making an appointment with that rehabilitation service provider they will contact the CTP insurer for pre-payment of your initial appointment.
3. Your treatment provider will then report back to the CTP insurer after the initial appointment and request further sessions, if required.

If you are unsure about this process or the CTP insurer has declined to fund your rehabilitation, then please contact our office for assistance. 

If you are left with any impairment from your injuries, it is prudent to get a medicolegal report from a medical specialist (who hasn't treated you) detailing your level of impairment and the consequences of that impairment and the effect it is having on your home life and ability to work or study.  

The most important opinion from the medical specialist in a CTP claim medicolegal report is what impact your injuries may have on your future.  For example, the medical specialist may think your current occupation is not sustainable long term and you may have to retrain, or you may have to reduce your hours to part time, or you may never work again at all.

Some medical specialists are sympathetic to injured persons and some are not.  It is important to get medicolegal reports that truly reflect the impairment and consequences to you, or you are at risk of not being adequately compensated. 

Other evidence that is useful when calculating compensation is evidence of prior earnings, prior education or vocational achievements, a report from an Occupational Therapist on functional capacity (strength, endurance and resilience) and proof of any prior sports and hobbies.

Once your injuries are stable and you have medico legal reports from the necessary medical specialists (so the impact and future of your injuries are clear) it is helpful to put together a Schedule of Damages for the CTP insurer.

A Schedule of Damages is an outline of everything you are claiming compensation for and the exact amounts.

All CTP claims for compensation are assessed individually and depends on the type and severity of your injury and your particular circumstances.

This task can be tricky for self-litigants because the information required to draft a Schedule of Damages is contained within numerous pieces of legislation and all of the published case decisions that have previously gone to Court and been decided on by a judge.

If you are unsure of how to calculate your compensation, it is not in your best interests to guess or estimate, and we ask that you please contact our office for assistance if you have got to this stage without legal representation.

It is also important not to accept any offer of compensation from a CTP insurer without first getting legal advice on the adequacy of any offer.  From our experience the offers made to self-litigants are very low.  

Sometimes the CTP insurers do not agree with the Schedule of Damages and only make low settlement offers.  

As with any legal dispute, if the parties are too far apart in settlement negotiations, then the next step is asking for a Court to decide on what compensation should be paid by the CTP insurer.  

Up until this point, you have been working through the pre court procedure of a CTP claim.

If a settlement cannot be reached, then this means that you may have to file your CTP claim in Court. 

This is very rare but sometimes you must apply a bit more pressure to make a CTP insurer see sense.