Sustaining an injury in a motor vehicle accident is undoubtedly a stressful experience. While you may be recovering from both physical and emotional trauma, this can also place a financial burden on you and your loved ones. While motor accident compensation claims are available to injured parties to receive financial compensation, these claims can take much longer than expected to become finalised.
If you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident, read on to find out more about what affects the time for your claim to become finalised.
What are motor accident compensation claims?
A motor accident compensation is a means for those who have been injured in a motor vehicle accident to receive compensation for their related injuries. If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident as a driver, rider, passenger or pedestrian, then you may be entitled to make a motor accident compensation claim.
Who I do I make a motor accident compensation claim against?
Under the Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance scheme, all motor vehicle owners in NSW are required to have CTP insurance. Thus, all motor accident compensation claims can be made against the insurer of the driver who was at fault for the accident.
What affects the finalisation of my motor accident compensation claim?
While the motor vehicle accident may be long over, many people find that their motor accident compensation claim tends to drag on for much longer. There are many timing factors that will affect how long it takes for your claim to finalise, and you may ultimately find that the longer this process takes, the fairer your compensation payout will be. Some timing considerations can include:
You only have one chance to make a claim
The injured party will only have one chance to bring forth a motor accident compensation claim.
Once you have made a claim and it has finalised, you are generally not allowed to make any further claims. Therefore, it is important to ensure your claim truly reflects the nature of your injuries and expenses because you will only be able to receive one compensation payout.
Time for your injuries to recover or stabilise
Motor accident compensation claims are usually finalised after you have recovered from your injuries, or your injured have stabilised. It may take some people days or weeks to recover, while others may need months or years, thus taking much longer for these claims to be finalised.
It is best to wait until your injuries have recovered or stabilised because any injuries sustained in an accident may worsen over time, or may not fully heal and it is necessary to determine if any future medical treatment or ongoing care is required, for compensation purposes. Also, injuries may not always appear straight after the accident, and can take some time to appear. For example, whiplash injuries are very common in motor vehicle accidents, and can often lead to recurring neck pain, back pain or muscle spasms in the future.
Any injuries sustained from an accident need to be assessed by a medical practitioner soon after the accident occurs. Evidence of medical records and receipts must be kept as they are required for motor accident compensation claims.
Financial expenses you have incurred
Motor accident compensation claims can take a while to be finalised because it is necessary to determine all the expenses you need to be reimbursed for. For example, there is a need to accurately calculate the amount of earnings you have lost due to your injuries, and the amount you have spent on medical, rehabilitation and hospital expenses. If there is expected to be a long-lasting injury, there is also the need to estimate the cost of future medical expenses too.
If your injury has exceeded the whole person impairment threshold of 10%, you may also be reimbursed for any pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
Compensation payouts are not immediate
Once a motor accident compensation claim has been finalised, and the compensation payout amount has been settled, it may take some time for the other party to pay you this amount. Depending on the nature of the claim, this payout may either be as a lump sum or in instalments.
For more information about time limits for motor accident compensation claims, get it touch with Schreuder Partners today.