Car Accident Lawyers in Sydney: No Win No Fee
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in NSW — as a driver, passenger, motorcyclist, cyclist or pedestrian — you can generally claim compensation through the CTP scheme. That may include weekly payments while you can’t work, medical treatment and care costs, and a lump sum if your injuries have a lasting impact on your life.
Working out what you’re entitled to is one thing — actually getting it can be another. Insurers may dispute fault, or decide your injuries are less serious than your own doctors say. Our Sydney car accident lawyers have spent 26 years challenging those decisions and ensuring nothing you’re entitled to gets left behind.
Get in touch for a free case review. We’ll tell you what you can claim and what to do next. From there, you can simply take the advice and handle things yourself, or leave the whole claim to us: the paperwork, the insurer, the evidence, and the deadlines. Whatever you decide, you’re always covered by our No Win No Fee guarantee.
Our Sydney locations
Our head office is right in the Sydney CBD, with additional locations in Parramatta, Chatswood, Blacktown, Liverpool, Penrith and Rockdale, so you can meet one of our car accident lawyers close to home.
Can’t make it in person? We offer free phone and video consultations across NSW, giving you access to expert advice without leaving your house.
Meet our team of Sydney car accident lawyers
The lawyer you choose makes a significant difference to how smoothly your claim runs — and how much you end up with. Our Sydney team has handled claims of every size against every major CTP insurer, including a $1.72 million settlement for a cyclist hit by a car.
In 2026, that work saw us named Compensation Law Firm of the Year.
Leon Monaco
Managing Partner
Samantha Hazra
Solicitor
Kathryn Morcos
Solicitor
Ella Yuan
Paralegal
Seren Everingham
Paralegal
Can I claim compensation after a car accident in NSW?
In most cases, yes. Every registered vehicle in NSW must carry Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance — known as a green slip — which compensates people injured on the road.
Your claim goes to an insurer, and which one depends on fault: if another driver caused the accident, you claim against their vehicle’s CTP insurer (head to SIRA’s free CTP Connect tool if you don’t know who that is). If you were at fault, or no other vehicle was involved, the claim goes to your own vehicle’s CTP insurer instead.
Lodging a claim is the easy part; what’s harder is getting everything you’re entitled to. Two people with similar injuries can end up with very different outcomes: one receives treatment and weekly payments for about a year, the other also receives a lump sum for future lost earnings. The difference is often decided early — by what your claim forms include, what your first medical reports record, and which insurer decisions you accept.
That’s why it’s worth talking to us before you lodge your claim. In a free case review, one of our lawyers will look at your situation — your injuries, your work, how the accident happened — and tell you what you can claim and how to protect it.
Not ready to call? Our free claim checker takes about two minutes — or read on for who can claim, the types of claims available, and the time limits that apply.
Almost anyone injured in an accident involving a motor vehicle on a NSW road. Although we say ‘car accidents’, the scheme covers any motor vehicle — cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles — and you can claim whether you were behind the wheel, a passenger, riding a motorcycle or bicycle, or on foot.
You can generally still claim in situations where many people assume they can’t:
- The accident was partly your fault: You can still claim — your compensation may be reduced to reflect your share of responsibility, but partial fault doesn’t rule you out.[1]
- The accident was entirely your fault (including single-vehicle accidents): You can still receive treatment, care and income support, though these benefits are more limited and generally end after 12 months.[2]
- The at-fault vehicle can’t be identified or was unregistered (such as a hit-and-run): These claims are made against a government-backed scheme called the Nominal Defendant.
- No one was at fault: Some accidents genuinely aren’t anyone’s fault — the clearest example is a driver suffering a sudden, unexpected medical episode. The scheme allows passengers, pedestrians and people in other vehicles to claim as they normally would, including for lump sum compensation.[3] The driver who caused the accident can also claim treatment, care and income support, but not a lump sum.[4]
- A child was injured: Children under 16 can claim treatment, care and rehabilitation costs regardless of who caused the accident[5] — and seriously injured children can receive treatment and care for life.[6]
- Someone died in the accident: Funeral expenses can be claimed regardless of fault, and family members who were financially dependent on the person may also have a claim.[7] Close family members — and anyone who witnessed the fatal accident — can also claim if they’re diagnosed with a psychological injury as a result.[8]
There are two main exceptions. The first is if you’re the at-fault driver of an uninsured vehicle.[9] The second is being charged with a serious criminal driving offence connected to the accident — like fleeing a police pursuit, or dangerous driving causing death or serious injury. Benefits stop from the charge and are restored if you’re acquitted or the charge is dropped.[10] This doesn’t cover ordinary traffic offences: speeding or running a red light won’t disqualify you.
There are two types of claim under the NSW CTP scheme, and many people with serious injuries make both.
- A statutory benefits claim: This is where nearly every claim starts, and it’s available regardless of who was at fault. It covers your medical treatment, rehabilitation and care, as well as weekly payments while you can’t work (if you were working before the accident). These benefits can begin soon after you lodge and continue while you recover, though how long they last depends on your injuries and whether you were at fault.
- A common law damages claim: This is the lump sum claim. It’s available if someone else was at fault and your injuries are more than ‘threshold injuries’.[11] That classification turns on the type of injury, not how much it hurts, so it’s worth checking rather than assuming. The lump sum covers the income your injuries will cost you over the years ahead. If your permanent impairment is assessed at more than 10%, you can also claim damages for non-economic loss — things like pain and suffering, lost enjoyment of life and permanent scarring.[12] Common law claims are usually made once your injuries have stabilised and their long-term impact can be assessed, but you’ll need to make sure you claim within three years of the accident.[13]
The two claims work together rather than one replacing the other. The medical evidence in your benefits claim becomes the foundation of any damages claim — so mention every symptom from the start, and describe each one as it really is. And settling the lump sum doesn’t end your support: reasonable and necessary treatment and care can continue under your benefits claim even after a damages claim is paid.[14]
Any injury caused by the accident — physical, psychological or both. The type of injury doesn’t decide whether you can claim. What it affects is how the insurer classifies your injury, and that classification determines how long your benefits last and whether a lump sum claim is open to you.
Every injury is sorted into one of two categories:
- Threshold injuries: Soft tissue injuries such as sprains and strains (whiplash is the most common), and psychological injuries that aren’t recognised psychiatric illnesses. Adjustment disorder and acute stress disorder are treated as threshold, even though they’re recognised illnesses.[11]
- Non-threshold injuries: Everything else, including fractures, complete or partial ruptures of a tendon, ligament, cartilage or meniscus, internal injuries, spinal cord and brain injuries, nerve injuries, and recognised psychiatric illnesses such as PTSD and depression.[11]
SIRA’s guide to understanding threshold injury covers the line between threshold and non-threshold in more detail.
A few things people often don’t realise:
- You can claim for a psychological injury on its own; you don’t need to have been physically hurt.
- You can claim where the accident made an existing condition worse; the aggravation is what’s compensated.
- Injuries that appear days or weeks later are still claimable, so see a doctor promptly even if you feel mostly fine. This ensures whatever develops is connected to the accident in your records from the start.
- Ask for specific diagnoses on your certificate of fitness. Insurers classify your injury from what’s written there, and vague terms like ‘stress’ or ‘pain’ can see a serious injury classified as threshold.[15]
The insurer must tell you your classification in writing within nine months of your claim being lodged.[15] Expect months rather than weeks — the insurer gathers medical evidence before deciding. When the decision arrives, read it carefully: you have 28 days from receiving it to request a review,[16] and it determines whether your benefits stop after a year, whether they continue beyond, and whether you’re entitled to lump sum compensation.
There are three deadlines — and each one affects how much you’re paid, not just whether you can claim.
- Within 28 days: lodge your claim and report to police. You must lodge your benefits claim within 28 days to ensure your weekly payments cover you from the day after the accident. Outside this period, payments may only start from the day you lodge — which can mean weeks of lost income.[17] You’ll also need to report the accident to police within 28 days if they didn’t attend the scene — you can do this through the Police Assistance Line.[18]
- Within 3 months: the final cut-off for your benefits claim. Your Application for Personal Injury Benefits must reach the CTP insurer within three months of the accident. If you’ve missed the 28-day mark, this is also your window to fix it — lodge within three months with a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay, and your back pay can still be recovered.[19]
- Within 2–3 years: lodge your common law damages claim. You have three years from the accident to lodge your common law claim with the insurer.[13] But an earlier deadline affects your income: weekly payments stop after two years unless you have started a common law damages claim.[20] With a claim running, payments can continue a further year if your permanent impairment is assessed at 10% or less, or a further three years if it’s more than 10%.[20]
If a deadline has already passed, you may still be able to claim. Late claims can be accepted where there’s a good reason for the delay — like hospitalisation, injuries that emerged over time, or not knowing you could claim.
Start Your Free Online Claim Check
Find out if you’re eligible for car accident compensation. It only takes a couple of minutes — and it’s completely confidential.
IT ONLY TAKES 2 MINUTES
Check Your Eligibility Now
How much car accident compensation can I claim in NSW?
That depends mainly on two things: how serious your injuries are, and whether someone else was at fault. Whether you can claim at all is rarely the issue — insurers accept 97% of statutory benefits claims.[21]
Most people injured on NSW roads have threshold injuries — soft tissue damage like whiplash, or less severe psychological conditions — and if you’re not at fault, these claims average around $17,000 in treatment, care and income support.[22][23] That amount might seem low, but it’s pulled down by the roughly half of claimants who only need treatment and care, like retirees, students, and other people who didn’t need time off.[24] So if your injury keeps you off work, expect your claim to be worth more than the average.
More serious injuries can also support a common law damages claim on top of these benefits — provided someone else was at fault. The average payout is around $200,000 where permanent impairment is assessed at 10% or less, and around $600,000 where it’s higher.[25] And because these payouts are calculated on your own earnings and losses, there’s no fixed ceiling — our largest single car accident settlement is $1.72 million.
Almost everyone who claims receives these benefits, regardless of fault:
- Medical treatment and rehabilitation: Hospital, surgery, GP and specialist visits, physio, psychology and medication, where reasonable and necessary.
- Care and support: Paid help with personal care and domestic tasks if your injuries require it.
- Travel costs: To and from medical appointments.
If you were earning before the accident (or had work lined up) and the injury has cost you income, your benefits may also include weekly wage-replacement payments. These start at up to 95% of your pre-accident earnings for the first 13 weeks, capped at $5,106 a week.[26] After that, the rate depends on your work capacity. You’ll receive up to 80% if you can’t work at all, or, if you’re back on reduced hours, up to 85% of the difference between what you earned before and what you earn now.
How long benefits last depends on your injuries and who’s responsible for the accident. If your injuries are threshold, or the accident was mostly your fault, benefits generally end at 12 months.[27] For everyone else, weekly payments can run up to two years. If you have a common law damages claim underway, that extends weekly payments up to three years — or five if your permanent impairment is also above 10%.[20]
Treatment and care work differently: for non-threshold injuries, they can continue for as long as they’re reasonable and necessary, including after a common law claim settles. After five years, long-term care moves to the scheme’s CTP Care program.
You can claim both benefits and a lump sum, but your lump sum may be reduced by your share of responsibility — known as contributory negligence. If you’re assessed as 20% responsible, your compensation is reduced by 20%. Common examples include not wearing a seatbelt, riding without a helmet, getting in a car with a driver you knew was affected by alcohol or drugs, or using your phone while driving.
One protection worth knowing: your weekly benefits can’t be reduced for contributory negligence in the first 12 months after the accident.[28]
How much will it cost me to make a claim? No Win, No Fee
For much of a CTP claim, legal help costs nothing — and that’s the law, not an offer. Nobody can charge you for help lodging your Application for Personal Injury Benefits, or for an internal review of an insurer’s decision.[29]
Where a statutory benefits claim does need paid legal work, the costs are capped and the insurer pays them. That protection covers the main disputes that reach the Personal Injury Commission: fault, injury classification, and whether treatment is reasonable and necessary.[30] For advice along the way, there’s the free, government-run CTP Legal Advisory Service.
A common law damages claim is different. The Legal Advisory Service can’t help with these claims, and costs aren’t covered like they are with a benefit dispute — but it’s often where the most significant compensation sits. This is the one claim where you need your own lawyer, and it’s the work we do, on a No Win No Fee basis.
That’s why your first step should be a free case review: before anything is lodged, we’ll tell you which type of claim you have. If it’s statutory benefits only, we’ll say so — that’s a claim you can run without paying anyone, and CTP Assist will support you through it. If there’s a common law claim, you’ll know early — and if you choose to work with us, we’ll handle your benefits claim too.
No Win No Fee
You pay nothing upfront and nothing while your claim runs. If your claim doesn’t succeed, you pay no legal fees and no case expenses.
We Fund Your Claim
Medical evidence, expert reports, court fees: we cover the costs of running your claim as it progresses, so you’re never out of pocket along the way.
Keep More Compensation
NSW law caps legal costs on damages claims and protects the first $75,000 of a settlement or award from them. Details below.
The cost protections on the benefits side don’t depend on your choice of lawyer — they’re set by law. No firm can bill you for lodging your Application for Personal Injury Benefits or for an internal review, and where Commission disputes involve paid legal work, the capped costs fall to the insurer, whoever acts for you.[30]
For advice on statutory benefit claims, SIRA’s free CTP Legal Advisory Service connects you with an independent lawyer by phone, with the advice confirmed in writing. You arrange this through SIRA’s CTP Assist team on 1300 656 919. Keep in mind, the service has limits: it’s advice only. The panel lawyers can’t file documents, represent you at the Commission, or advise beyond the single matter you’re referred for.
You don’t pay anything if we lose. On the benefits side of your claim, the cost rules above protect you either way: services are either off-limits for billing or capped and paid by the insurer.[30] For the common law claim, the protection comes from us: No Win No Fee means if the claim doesn’t succeed, you pay no legal fees and no case expenses.
If your case succeeds, our fees are paid out of your settlement — never from your pocket along the way. Three protections keep this process fair: legal costs for common law claims are capped by regulation in NSW; the at-fault insurer typically contributes to them; and the law protects the first $75,000 of a settlement or award from solicitor-client costs.[31] Before we start any work, you’ll also receive a written costs agreement setting out exactly what you’d pay and what you’d keep — so there’s no surprise at the end.
How do I start a car accident claim?
Starting a car accident claim is more straightforward than most people expect. There are four main steps:
Your treatment matters most, and the medical record starts here: injuries that surface later are much easier to claim when the accident is already in your file. Describe every symptom, including the ones you’d normally shrug off, and ask your doctor for a certificate of fitness — the form your claim will need.
Report the accident on the Police Assistance Line (131 444) within 28 days and note the event number they give you. If police attended the scene, they’ve already created one, so just ask for it. You’ll need the police event number to claim.
Make sure you have the other vehicle’s registration and driver’s details, the date, time and place of the accident, and any photos you took of the scene. If you don’t know which CTP insurer to lodge with, SIRA’s free CTP Assist service can identify it from the vehicle’s registration.
With your certificate of fitness attached, lodge online through Service NSW, or directly with the insurer. Lodging within 28 days means your weekly payments are backdated to the accident; any later, and they generally start from the day you lodge.
What happens after you lodge?
After you lodge, things generally move fast: around 90% of people can access treatment within two weeks, and the first weekly payment arrives in just under five weeks on average.[32] Within a few weeks you’ll also receive the insurer’s decisions in writing — including how your injuries are classified, which decides how long your benefits last and whether a lump sum claim is open to you.
One fork in the road before you lodge: If your injuries are minor and the claim is straightforward, the steps above and CTP Assist will get you there. If your injuries are serious, someone else was at fault, or you’re not sure — talk to us before you lodge anything. The claim forms and first medical reports become the foundation of any lump sum claim, and a free case review protects it while everything is still open.
What happens once we take on your car accident claim?
People come to us at different points — some before lodging anything, some when an insurer decision goes against them, some to build a lump sum claim. You can run a straightforward claim yourself, and many people do. But at the serious end of the scheme, representation is the norm: around nine in ten people who claim damages have a lawyer.[33] Here’s what we do, start to finish:
If your statutory benefits claim isn’t lodged yet, we lodge it immediately — the deadlines and backdating rules reward speed. Then we make sure the benefits actually flow: weekly payments at the right amount, treatment approved, and the insurer’s early decisions checked. If your injuries are classified as threshold and that doesn’t match your injuries, this is when we dispute it — the review window is short, and the classification shapes how long you get benefits and what else you can claim.
A lump sum has to cover what the injury will cost you for years ahead — and nobody knows that number early. The insurer doesn’t have to wait for that clarity: an offer can arrive early, and early offers are often too low, because they don’t include the full future cost of your injury.
So while you focus on recovering, we build your lump sum claim. We brief your treating specialists and independent medical experts on the types of reports your claim needs — the insurer will be sending you to its own doctors, and their opinions need answering. Once your injuries have stabilised, we have your impairment assessed across every physical and psychological injury, and dispute the result if it’s too low. We also look at your earnings history, what work you can still do, and the care you’ll need — because future loss is usually the biggest part of the claim, and it has to be built on evidence. We don’t put a number on your claim until we’re sure the number is right.
We deal with every information request, every independent medical examination, and every dispute about treatment or payments. Where the insurer gets a decision wrong, knocks back a treatment, or tries to cut off your payments, we challenge it through internal review and — if needed — bring your case to the Personal Injury Commission. All you have to do during this time is stay in treatment, keep your certificates current, and attend the assessments, because the record they create is what the claim is built on.
Once the evidence is complete, we file your lump sum damages claim and put your case to the insurer. You’ll then attend a settlement conference, where most claims resolve. We negotiate with the insurer to ensure their offer covers your future losses as well as your current ones. The decision to accept is always yours.
If your claim doesn’t resolve during settlement negotiations, an independent Commission member reviews the evidence and assesses what the claim is worth. This is a structured process, not a trial, and we represent you throughout. Court exists beyond that, but it’s rare: across more than 105,000 claims under the scheme, only a few hundred have even started court proceedings.[34]
When your claim resolves, we explain the outcome plainly and give you a full breakdown before anything is finalised: what was recovered, what the insurer contributes to costs, and exactly what you keep. Realistically, a damages claim takes time: from lodgement to resolution, most run for just under three years,[35] because the strongest claims are built on stabilised injuries and complete evidence. We’ll tell you where yours sits at every point along the way.
Ready to talk about your case?
Tell us what happened. We will listen, answer your questions, and help you understand whether you have a claim and what to do next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about car accident claims in Sydney and NSW.
There are two different timelines to keep in mind, because there are two different claims.
Your statutory benefits claim usually moves quickly. Around 90% of people can access treatment within two weeks of lodging, and the first weekly payment arrives in just under five weeks on average.[32] Over the following weeks and months, the insurer will make its key early decisions in writing, including whether it accepts the claim, how your injuries are classified, and who it considers to be at fault.
A lump sum damages claim runs on a much longer timeline. From commencement to resolution, most take around three years.[35] That’s not because the system is slow — it’s because a sound claim takes time to build. A lump sum has to cover what the injury will cost you for years ahead, and that number can’t be known until your injuries have stabilised: whether you’ll fully recover, return to your old work, or need long-term treatment. Settling before that clarity means settling on the insurer’s guess, and early guesses run low.
Two things are worth knowing about the wait. First, you’re not left without support: your weekly payments and treatment continue while your damages claim is being prepared. Second, there are important deadlines. A damages claim generally must be lodged within three years of the accident.[13] And if you’re still receiving weekly payments as the two-year mark approaches, your damages claim generally needs to start before then for those payments to continue.[20] Once we’re acting for you, keeping track of those deadlines becomes our job. Get advice early, and we’ll make sure nothing is missed. If you’d like a clearer idea of how long your claim may take, that’s something we’ll discuss during your free case review.
Almost certainly not — court proceedings are rare in the NSW scheme.
If you’re only claiming for statutory benefits, court isn’t part of the picture at all: any disputes run through insurer internal review and the Personal Injury Commission. For common law damages claims, more than 98% resolve without court proceedings ever starting — by settlement with the insurer or a Commission assessment.[36]
The Commission is where the system is designed to stop. If the insurer accepts fault, the Commission’s decision on your claim value is binding on them. This means if you accept the decision within 21 days, the insurer must pay.[37]
Court is possible only in a handful of situations: where fault itself is seriously contested, or where a claim is exempted from the Commission’s process, such as fraud allegations, parties outside the CTP scheme, or disputes too complex for assessment.[38]
It depends which claim you’re running, and the two answers are very different.
For a statutory benefits claim, you can represent yourself, and plenty of people do. The scheme was designed for it: SIRA’s free CTP Assist service supports you through the process. If your injuries are threshold and the insurer’s decisions are reasonable, you may never need a lawyer.
Where it gets harder is if a dispute arises — your classification is challenged, payments are cut off, or treatment is knocked back. You can still run these yourself. But for disputes that reach the Personal Injury Commission, legal costs are paid by the insurer, so if you want a lawyer at that point, it won’t come out of your pocket.
A common law damages claim is different, and the law answers this one directly: a damages claim can’t be settled unless you have a lawyer, or the Personal Injury Commission approves the settlement as just, fair and reasonable.[39] So strictly, no — you don’t need a lawyer; the approval route exists, and self-represented people do settle claims through it.
However, the Commission’s job is to confirm that the settlement you’ve already negotiated clears a floor — not whether it’s the amount you actually deserve. That only comes from building the right evidence, timing your impairment assessment, and challenging the insurer’s medical experts. It’s why, in practice, around nine in ten people who claim damages have a lawyer.[33] And since we operate on a No Win No Fee basis, cost doesn’t have to be the reason you go it alone.
Not sure which claim you have? Speak to us for a free case review — we’ll tell you which claim you have, and whether you actually need a lawyer at all.
Yes. Whiplash is the most common injury in the NSW CTP scheme, and a claim gets you real support. Whiplash and other soft tissue injuries are generally classified as threshold injuries, which entitles you to:
- Weekly income support if you’re unable to work.
- Medical and treatment expenses.
- Rehabilitation and care where reasonably required.
These benefits generally continue for up to 12 months, and claims like these average around $17,000 all up for people not at fault.[22][23]
One question worth asking: is it actually just whiplash? Pain doesn’t decide your classification — documentation does. ‘Whiplash’ on a certificate can cover anything from a stiff neck to an injury that isn’t threshold at all, so make sure a doctor examines you properly. Signs of nerve damage, any tear of a tendon, ligament or cartilage — even partial — or a diagnosed condition like PTSD can each make your claim non-threshold.
For a car accident claim in NSW, you need evidence of four things: the accident itself, your injuries, your income, and what the injury costs you. You don’t need all of it before you lodge — a certificate of fitness from your doctor and the police event number get you started, and the rest can follow.
- Evidence of the accident: The police event number, the other vehicle’s registration and driver’s details, photos of the scene and damage, witness contacts, and dashcam footage if it exists. Save dashcam footage early — it gets deleted on a loop.
- Evidence of your injuries: Every certificate of fitness, referral, scan and specialist report. These decide your injury classification, which impacts your ongoing payments and eligibility for lump sums. The record is built visit by visit, so report every symptom each time. Keeping a simple diary of your pain and what you couldn’t do each day helps too.
- Evidence of your income: Payslips for employees; tax returns, business activity statements and bank records if you’re self-employed. The insurer sets your weekly payment rate from your earnings over the year before the accident, and pays you a lower interim rate until you provide the records — so get them in quickly. Check their calculation when it arrives: things like a recent promotion, a second job or cash earnings are often missed, and can lift your rate.
- Evidence of what the injury costs you: Receipts for everything — medication, travel to appointments, equipment, paid help. Even small amounts are reimbursable, and they add up.
If you’re also making a lump sum damages claim, you’ll need more evidence again. It has to prove what the injury will cost you over the rest of your working life, so it takes years to build: expert reports, an impairment assessment once your injuries have stabilised, and detailed proof of your earnings and what work you can still do.
This evidence isn’t optional: the insurer can formally require it, and if the requests aren’t properly answered, the claim can be treated as withdrawn.[40] The good news is, you won’t build any of it alone, because we’ll do it for you. And if some of your evidence is missing — photos nobody took, a cash job with no payslips, symptoms that appeared weeks later — don’t assume your claim fails. Records like these can be reconstructed, and we do it routinely.
Initially, the insurer — but that decision isn’t final.
The insurer makes the first classification, in writing, based on your medical records and its own assessments. If you disagree, you can ask the insurer to review the decision. And if that doesn’t resolve it, the dispute goes to the Personal Injury Commission, where it’s decided by an independent Medical Assessor: a doctor appointed by the Commission, not chosen by the insurer. This Medical Assessor examines you and your whole medical record and issues a certificate stating whether your injuries are threshold or non-threshold. The insurer can’t overrule this certificate — it can only be challenged before a review panel by showing the assessment was wrong in a material respect.[41]
If your injury deteriorates, or new information emerges that could change the outcome, your classification can be referred for a further assessment. The Assessor only works from what’s documented, though, so it’s important to keep consistent medical records from the first appointment.
Some of the most damaging mistakes in a car accident claim are behavioural — things people say and do around their doctors and the insurer, including:
- Downplaying your injuries: Don’t tell your doctor ‘I’m fine, just a bit sore’ when describing your injuries — they’ll put ‘fine’ in your medical record, and that record will be used to decide your injury classification. Make sure to describe what actually hurts, every visit.
- Overstating your injuries: The record has to match reality in both directions. Certifying you’re not working while doing shifts on the side isn’t a shortcut; it’s a criminal offence, and one that’s actively enforced.[42]
- Gaps in treatment: Stopping treatment because you’re busy or toughing it out makes the insurer think you’re getting better. If you can’t attend a treatment appointment, tell your doctor why, so the record explains the situation for you.
- Inconsistency online and offline: Insurers can conduct surveillance where they believe a claim is exaggerated, and courts can order social media produced. The real protection isn’t hiding; it’s ensuring consistency between what you report and how you live.
- Signing an investigator’s version of your words: A statement written up by the insurer’s investigator is their wording of your story. You don’t have to sign it on the spot — have the wording checked first, and take anything recorded away for advice. You should cooperate with the insurer’s reasonable requests, but cooperation never means signing someone else’s account of what you said.
- Hiding a pre-existing condition: The instinct is to protect the claim, but the effect is the opposite. Insurers obtain your pre-accident records, and an undisclosed condition that’s discovered later damages your credibility. On the other hand, a disclosed condition usually just gets worked around — aggravating an existing condition is still claimable. If something in the record is already wrong, correct it quickly.
- Accepting the first offer: Never accept an early offer from the insurer without having a lawyer check it first — early offers usually don’t consider the full future impact of your injury, because the full impact of the injury isn’t known yet. Once you accept a settlement, your claim generally can’t be reopened, even if your condition worsens.
If one of these has already happened, the fix is almost always the same: start documenting properly from today, correct anything that needs correcting, and get advice before your next interaction with the insurer.
First, work out what was actually denied — it’s rarely the whole claim.
A ‘denial’ is usually one specific decision: your injuries classified as threshold, a treatment refused, weekly payments refused or cut, fault put on you, or the insurer disputing that the accident caused your injuries. The insurer’s letter must tell you which decision it made and how to challenge it — so read it carefully, and note the date, because your window to act is generally 28 days.[43]
The first step is an internal insurer review. This process is free, the review must be done by someone who had no role in the original decision, and the insurer must generally complete it within 14 days.[44]
If the insurer upholds its decision — or doesn’t respond in time — the dispute moves to the Personal Injury Commission. When people challenge decisions about their weekly payments, more than half of those decisions are changed by the Commission.[45]
Two things protect your challenge while it runs. Keep the medical record current — the review is decided on it. And get advice as soon as the letter arrives: the review windows are the shortest clocks in the scheme, and we’ll tell you which pathway fits your decision.
First, check how it happened — because the insurer can’t just stop paying you.
The law requires written notice before weekly payments are reduced or discontinued, and the longer you’ve been on benefits, the more notice insurers have to give. If your payments stopped without proper notice, that alone can be challenged — and the missed payments recovered.[46]
Then it depends on why payments stopped. If it was an insurer decision, such as the insurer believing your injuries have resolved, reclassifying your injuries, or putting fault on you, the decision can be challenged. That pathway is covered under ‘What should I do if my car accident claim is denied?’.
If your benefit period simply ran out, the question is whether the right period was applied. That turns on two things:
- Your classification: Threshold benefits end at 12 months. But if that classification never matched your evidence, you may still be able to contest it.
- Your common law damages claim: For non-threshold injuries, weekly payments can continue well beyond two years, but only while a common law damages claim is underway. If you’re approaching the two-year mark, lodging a claim is what keeps payments running. If payments have already stopped before you’ve lodged a claim, get legal advice immediately — it may still be possible to get them restarted, but every week you wait makes that harder.
Whatever stopped the payments, your treatment may not have stopped with them — for non-threshold, not-at-fault claims, treatment continues for as long as it’s reasonable and necessary. Before accepting that your payments are done, have a lawyer check if you’re entitled to more. That check is quick, and it’s free.
Yes. The scheme covers psychological injuries as well as physical ones. Even people who weren’t involved in the accident can claim if they develop a psychiatric condition after witnessing a fatal crash or losing a close family member in one.[47]
The specific diagnosis matters, though. A recognised psychiatric illness — PTSD, major depression, a diagnosed anxiety disorder — is a non-threshold injury, which means benefits that can run for years and a possible lump sum claim. The main exceptions are adjustment disorder and acute stress disorder, which are classified as threshold injuries even though they’re real conditions — capping benefits at 12 months.
The line between an acute stress reaction and PTSD can be a matter of time and proper assessment, so see your doctor early, describe every symptom, and ask for a referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist rather than waiting for it to pass.
A history of mental health problems doesn’t disqualify you either: even a temporary worsening of a pre-existing condition can be a non-threshold injury — what matters is that the accident made it worse, not that it started it.[48] And psychological treatment is itself a benefit: therapy and counselling are covered like any other treatment, so you don’t need to wait for the claim to resolve before getting help. Our guide to compensation for PTSD and psychological injuries covers this in more depth.
You don’t have to — and you shouldn’t try, whichever way you think it points.
Fault is decided by the CTP insurer, based on evidence, and it happens more slowly than most people expect. While the insurer decides whether to accept your claim within four weeks, the definitive fault decision — including any finding that you were partly to blame — arrives with a second notice, up to nine months in. It must be in writing, in plain English, and explain both the impact on your benefits and how to challenge it.[49]
At the scene and after, stick to facts: exchange details, photograph everything, get the police event number — but don’t argue fault or accept blame. Fault barely affects the start of your claim, since almost everyone injured gets statutory benefits for up to 52 weeks regardless of fault.
If the insurer later decides the accident was partly or mostly your fault, you’re entitled to dispute its decision. ‘What should I do if my car accident claim is denied?’ covers how to challenge a fault decision you disagree with.
Yes, you can. When the at-fault vehicle can’t be identified (a hit-and-run) or wasn’t insured, your claim runs against the Nominal Defendant: a statutory body that stands in for the missing insurer.[50] Your claim is allocated to a CTP insurer, and from there it proceeds like any other — same benefits, same deadlines, same process, including a lump sum damages claim if your injuries are serious.
One extra requirement applies, and only to hit-and-runs: you must make a genuine effort to identify the vehicle. The law calls this ‘due inquiry and search’. Make sure to report the accident to the police promptly, speak to any witnesses, and request CCTV or dashcam footage from nearby businesses before it’s recorded over.
The effort has to be prompt and as thorough as your circumstances allow. If the insurer thinks you’ve fallen short, it must tell you exactly what’s missing and how to fix it. Speed matters more here than in any other claim type: evidence of an unidentified vehicle disappears fast, and your claim isn’t complete until the search is done. That means if the search takes you past the three-month mark, the back pay can be gone for good — so start the search immediately.
No matter your situation, a missing driver doesn’t mean a missing claim. Our guide to Nominal Defendant claims covers more about who can claim, the time limits, and what the search requirement takes in practice.
Yes, you can. A police report is evidence for your claim, not a condition of it: without one, the insurer simply leans harder on everything else — your medical records, witnesses, photos, dashcam.
One exception where the report carries real weight: hit-and-runs. If the at-fault vehicle was never identified, the police report is the backbone of the search requirement covered under ‘Can I still claim if the at-fault driver didn’t stop or has no insurance?’ — so make the report immediately.
To file a report after the accident, call the Police Assistance Line (131 444). They’ll issue the event number your claim form asks for — and if the call doesn’t produce one, note the date and time you rang; that record itself supports your claim.
Every injury can be claimed for — and having several changes your claim in two important ways:
- Classification: Your most serious injury defines your whole claim. If even one injury is non-threshold, the 12-month benefit caps that apply to threshold claims don’t apply to you — which is why every injury needs to be diagnosed and documented. A fractured wrist is hard to miss, but the shoulder tear found on a later scan, or the anxiety that builds over months, can matter just as much to the claim.
- Impairment: When your permanent impairment is assessed for a lump sum claim, your physical injuries are combined into a single permanent impairment figure — calculated on a sliding scale, not simply added together. This means if you have several moderate injuries, they can clear the 10% threshold together, even if none would reach it alone. The one exception is psychological injuries, which are assessed separately from physical ones; the two figures can’t be combined.[51]
The practical rule stays the same: report every symptom, every visit, from the start — an injury that never makes it into the record can’t be classified, combined, or compensated.
Yes, at any stage. Your claim belongs to you, and you don’t need permission or a reason to change lawyers. There are two main things people worry about when switching: paying twice and disrupting the claim.
Under No Win No Fee agreements, costs are deferred until your claim resolves, so you don’t usually pay your old lawyer anything to leave. Their costs are sorted out at the end of the claim through an agreement between the two firms. If you transfer your claim to Monaco, we check all of this before taking over a matter, so you know where costs stand before you decide anything.
Changing lawyers also doesn’t mean starting again. Your new firm requests the file, and your claim continues from where it stands — lodged applications, medical records and expert reports all travel with it. One caveat on timing: if a deadline or hearing is close, it’s usually better to get through it first and change after.
Switching makes sense when something real is wrong: you can’t get answers, deadlines feel loose, or you’re being pushed toward a settlement you don’t understand. Keep in mind that some stages just involve waiting — impairment assessments and settlement negotiations take time with any lawyer. If you’re not sure, ask us for a free case review. We’ll tell you what stage your claim is at, what should be happening, and whether changing lawyers would actually help.
Yes, we can take another look at your claim. A ‘no’ from one lawyer is just their opinion — and it might be wrong, or just too cautious.
It helps to understand what that ‘no’ often means. Sometimes it doesn’t mean you have no rights at all — it just means you may not have a lump sum damages claim at that stage. Most often that’s because your injuries have been assessed as threshold. But classifications can be disputed, revisited, and overtaken by events. Injuries develop, scans find what certificates missed, and psychological conditions can emerge months later. Whatever the position on damages, your entitlement to statutory benefits may still be unaffected.
In other cases, a lawyer says no because you’re outside the time limit — but late claims can be saved with a proper explanation, and the Commission has accepted that relying on a professional’s advice, including a lawyer’s, is exactly such an explanation.[52] A claim that wasn’t worth running at three months can also simply be worth running at eighteen.
And sometimes a ‘no’ is just a conservative judgement call — reasonable lawyers disagree, especially at the threshold boundary. We’ve taken on claims other firms declined, and we’ll tell you plainly which kind of ‘no’ yours was: wrong, premature, expired, or right. Either way you’ll know, and knowing costs nothing.
You shouldn’t have to worry about finances after losing a loved one — and the NSW motor accident scheme offers three types of compensation for grieving families:
- Funeral costs: These are covered no matter who was at fault and can be claimed before or after the funeral — ideally within three months of the accident, though late claims can still be accepted. CTP Assist (1300 656 919) has staff dedicated to supporting families through this.[53]
- Compensation to relatives claims: If you or your family were financially dependent on the person, including relying on them for childcare or help around the home, you can make a lump sum claim for that loss of income, care and support. These claims are open to spouses, children, parents, siblings and anyone else who depended on the deceased, provided the accident was someone else’s fault.
- Support for psychological injury: If your grief has become a diagnosed psychiatric illness, like PTSD or depression, you may be able to claim for medical treatment and counselling costs, lost income (if you can’t work), and your pain and suffering.
There’s no need to manage any of these claims alone — whenever you’re ready, we’ll handle all of it. It’s just a conversation with a lawyer, and the forms, deadlines and insurer become ours to manage.
Monaco helped me get much more compensation than I expected.
Monaco is the place to go for a lawyer that cares. You're in safe hands.
I'm glad my friend recommended Monaco. I was happy with the result.
They provided a ray of hope when it felt like that nothing would be okay again.
I would recommend these guys within a heartbeat!
Why choose Monaco
If you’re injured on the road, most lawyers can get you basic CTP insurance compensation. But at Monaco, we don’t do basic. Our team use proven legal strategies and expert medical evidence to secure your full compensation, so you can regain control of your life.
Voted ‘Compensation Law Firm of the Year in Australia 2020’, we’re industry leaders with the experience to take on even the biggest insurers. As part of our comprehensive legal service we will always:
- Assess your claim and provide meaningful advice on its value.
- Challenge the insurer’s medical evidence.
- Prepare your case to maximise your compensation.
- Uncover all your additional claims including disability and income support.
Leon Monaco and team
