Qld Work Injury Claims & the 5% Threshold

Posted on November 1, 2017November 2, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Brisbane & Gold Coast No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain recent decision impact on work injury claims in Qld.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain the impact of Trumino v Coles on work injury claims. Gold Coast & Brisbane No Win No Fee Lawyers.

Good News for those Injured at Work During 15 October 2013 & 30 January 2015

If you’ve been injured at work during the period 15 October 2013 and 30 January 2015, then your work injury claim is subject to the 5% threshold. What this means is that you cannot bring a Common Law claim for your work injury unless you achieve a degree of permanent impairment(DPI) for your injury of over 5%.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Explain the Degree of Permanent Impairment (DPI)

What is a degree of permanent impairment or DPI ? Taking your body as 100% functioning, permanent impairment is basically the impairment or loss of function suffered because of an injury. So for example, doctors may assess you as suffering a 7% loss of bodily function because of your work injury – then your DPI is 7%.

How doctors assess permanent impairment of functioning caused by an injury is based on a special guide used to assess DPI for work injuries in Queensland, namely, GEPI (Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment). And GEPI is primarily based on the international guide for assessing permanent impairment of functioning caused by injury, the AMA Guides.Continue reading→

Trip & Falls on Footpaths

Posted on October 30, 2017October 30, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Brisbane and Gold Coast Personal Injury Lawyers explain trip & fall personal injury claims where occurring on footpaths. No Win No Fee Lawyers, servicing Brisbane, Gold Coast & all Qld.

We commonly receive claim enquiries involving injuries from trip & falls on footpaths. These claims are usually against the local Council that has responsibility for and control over these areas of public land.

Because of the vast areas of public land Councils are responsible for, Courts are normally hesitant to find against these bodies in such claims. The issue being that Council’s cannot possibly be aware of every crack in a footpath or protruding tree root, in the large areas they oversee. Courts also consider that people should take care for their own safety when walking in public areas. And typically, local Council’s strenuously defend such claims, on these very grounds.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Explain Trip and Fall Claims Against Local Councils

The vast majority of falls on footpaths are due to uneven paving, protruding tree roots, or hidden indentations in the ground. To be successful in a claim arising from such events, it’s necessary to show the local Council was made aware of the danger prior to your trip & fall because of complaints made to it, or it had undertaken work in the area and therefore ought to have been aware of the hazard. For example, where the Council has undertaken maintenance of a footpath or nature strip and has failed to remove a protruding tree root, or where the Council removes a tree and doesn’t properly fill in the resultant hole.Continue reading→

Choosing the Best No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers for Your Claim

Posted on October 28, 2017October 30, 2017 by Toni Palmer

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Law Firm Gold Coast & Brisbane. No Win No Pay legal service to all Qld.

Gold Coast & Brisbane No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Explain the Best No Win No Fee Law Firm. Qld’s No Win No Pay legal service.

When you’ve been injured in an accident or in some other manner, due to the fault of another, you will want to ensure you have the best personal injury lawyers on your case. But for most people, they believe they can’t afford the best lawyers because they just don’t have the financial means to meet the legal fees involved. However, this is not an issue when you engage personal injury lawyers who provide a no win no fee service.

What Is a “No Win No Fee Legal Service”?

A no win no fee legal service, or no win no pay service as it is also known, is where a law firm runs a legal action on behalf of a client, and does not charge the client until the end of the action, and only if the legal action is successful. If the legal action is not successful, then the law firm does not get paid.Continue reading→

Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Explain Psychological Injury Claims

Posted on October 18, 2017October 18, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Steps to Take Following Workplace Injury

Posted on September 11, 2017September 21, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Gold Coast & Brisbane Work Injury Lawyers explain steps to take after suffering injury in the workplace. No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers.

Brisbane & Gold Coast Workplace Injury Lawyers explain steps to take after injury in the workplace.

1. Report the Workplace Injury to Your Employer & WorkCover Queensland

When you suffer injury in the course of your work, it is important that you report the injury to your employer as soon as possible, even if you believe it to be only minor. Often what is considered a minor injury following an event can turn out to be a major problem later on, so having a contemporaneous reporting of the event causing it is very important.

Also submit an application for workers’ compensation to WorkCover Queensland or your employer’s workers’ compensation division if it is self-insured. This will ensure that you don’t miss the 6 month time limit for bringing a workers’ compensation claim, if you need to claim workers’ compensation benefits later on.Continue reading→

No Workers’ Compensation Claim Could Lose You Lump Sum Compensation

Posted on August 13, 2017September 21, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Gold-Coast-Brisbane-Workplace-Injury-Workers'-Compensation-Lawyers

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers explain how not bringing a Workers’ Compensation claim can result in the loss of lump sum compensation. Gold Coast & Brisbane Experts in Workplace Injury Claims, servicing all Queensland.

Did you know that if you suffer an injury at work, resulting in a degree of permanent impairment (DPI), you have a right to statutory lump sum compensation?

Explaining Degree of Permanent Impairment (DPI) in Workplace Injury Claims

You’re considered to have sustained DPI where you have ongoing symptomatology from your work injury which impairs your ability to undertake your every living activities. DPI in work injury claims is assessed as a percentage under the Guide for Evaluating Permanent Impairment also known as GEPI.

After your work injury stabilises, if you’re injury is assessed by a GEPI trained medical expert as resulting in more than 0% DPI, then you will be entitled to a lump sum payment of compensation. You will have this entitlement no matter who was at fault for your work injury, as long as your injury was sustained in the course of your work, on your way to or from work or during a work break. It is called “statutory lump sum compensation”, because your entitlement to such compensation is pursuant to legislation, namely, the Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation Act 2003.Continue reading→

Notices of Assessment in Workers’ Compensation & Work Injury Claims

Posted on August 9, 2017September 21, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Gold Coast and Brisbane Personal Injury Lawyers explain Notices of Assessment in Queensland work injury claims

It’s imperative you seek advice from No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers before making any response to a Notice of Assessment in your work injury claim.

At the end of your workers’ compensation claim for work injury, the workers’ compensation insurer may issue you with a document called a “Notice of Assessment”. This document will list all your injuries sustained in your work accident and accord a degree of permanent impairment assessed by a doctor for each injury, and a total of the degree of permanent impairment assessed for all your injuries.

What is “degree of permanent impairment” for a work injury?

Taking your body’s overall functioning as 100%, a doctor trained in permanent impairment assessments will evaluate the degree your work injury has impaired your bodily function. The degree of permanent impairment is assessed as a percentage and is based on the impact the injury has on your capacity to undertake your everyday living activities. For example, your back injury sustained at work, may be assessed as resulting in permanent impairment of your capacity to undertake your everyday normal living activities of 10%.

Assessment of permanent impairment for work injuries in Queensland is undertaken in accordance with the Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, or “GEPI” as it is also known. Doctors who undertake these assessments must be accredited in evaluating permanent impairment under this Guide.

So at the end of your workers’ compensation claim, Workcover or the self insurer, will have your work injury reviewed by a GEPI trained doctor and ask for their assessment of what degree of permanent impairment your work injury has caused. The workers’ compensation insurer then issues you with a Notice of Assessment stipulating the degree of permanent impairment assessed.

Statutory Lump Sum Offers of Compensation with the Notice of Assessment

If the degree of permanent impairment stated in your Notice of Assessment is stated as more than 0%, then you will be made an offer of lump sum compensation when receiving your Notice of Assessment. The higher the degree of impairment, the greater the lump sum offer will be. Normally, the offer is around $3,000 for each 1% of permanent impairment assessed (eg. 5% degree of permanent impairment will result in an offer of approximately $15,000).

Continue reading→

Lump Sum Offers in Workers’ Compensation Claims

Posted on August 8, 2017September 21, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Personal Injury Lawyers expert in workplace injury claims explain Lump Sum Statutory Offers for workplace injuries.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers Brisbane and Gold Coast – Speak to us before making any decision to accept lump sum compensation for your work injury.

At the end of your workers’ compensation claim you may receive a Notice of Assessment from the workers’ compensation insurer allocating a permanent impairment percentage for your work injury. If you don’t know what a Notice of Assessment in a work injury claim is and would like to know more, please read our website post on Notices of Assessment at the end of your workers’ compensation claim.

Notices of Assessment & Permanent Impairment for Work Injury

Permanent Impairment is a percentage of impairment of bodily functioning allocated to an injury. Looking at your body as 100% functioning, an injury can impair your body’s normal functioning to a certain extent. This impairment in functioning is assessed by trained medical experts and accorded a percentage. The more serious the injury and its impact on your ability to function normally, the higher the percentage of permanent impairment accorded to the injury. For example, you may have sustained a back injury at work and doctors may assess your back injury as causing you a loss of bodily functioning of 10%.

Permanent Impairment in work injury claims in Queensland is assessed under the Guide to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment or GEPI as it is more commonly called.

When Statutory Lump Sum Offers are Made by Workcover or Workers’ Compensation Insurer

If your work injury has been assessed as suffering permanent impairment of more than 0% in your Notice of Assessment issued by Workcover (or the self-insurer) at the end of your workers’ compensation claim, you will be Continue reading→

How Much Compensation Will I Recieve For My Personal Injury Claim?

Posted on July 11, 2017November 20, 2017 by Toni Palmer

Personal Injury Lawyers article on how to calculate injury compensation in a personal injury claim. No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers in Brisbane & Gold Coast.

Personal Injury Lawyers explain how compensation is calculated in a personal injury claim. No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers, Brisbane & Gold Coast.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers are often asked this question when taking enquiries about personal injury claims. And understandably so. If you’re considering whether you’ll take legal action by way of a personal injury claim, then you’ll want to know how much compensation you are looking at achieving in taking that step. You need to know it will be a worthwhile process.

Calculating Personal Injury Claim Compensation Amounts

It is just not possible for a personal injury lawyer to tell you point blank, you’ll receive so much compensation for your personal injury claim, just by the injury you have sustained. There are numerous variables to be considered. No one personal injury claim is exactly like another, because each of these variables will be different for each individual claimant.

The major variables to be considered when calculating personal Continue reading→

What is a Common Law Claim?

Posted on July 2, 2017September 21, 2017 by Toni Palmer

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Lawyers are experts in personal injury claims, including Common Law Claims. A Common Law Claim is what most of us know as a lawsuit. It is where you sue a party who has wrongfully or negligently caused you to suffer injury, to obtain compensation for your injury and any resulting loss and damage. Examples of this are where you sue an at-fault driver for injuries you suffer in a car accident, or suing a Shopping Centre for injuries sustained because of unsafe premises.

The Difference Between a Common Law Claim and a Statutory Claim

Common Law claims are claims you have at Common Law. “Common Law” is law that has developed over many years of judicial decisions (Court decisions). It is to be distinguished from “statutory law”, which is law enacted by legislation or statute. Rights or entitlements we have at Common Law can only be altered by legislation specifically restricting or adding to them.

A good example of this is in the case of work injury claims in Queensland. When a worker in Queensland is injured at work, on their way to or from work or during a work break, they have a right to bring a workers’ compensation claim. A worker’s right to workers’ compensation is not a Common Law right. It is a right provided by way of legislation or statute, more specifically, the Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation Act 2003. Hence, often workers’ compensation claims are referred to as “statutory claims”.

Common Law Claims For Damages for Work Injury

But workers in Queensland also have another right to claim compensation when injured at work. This secondary claim is their Common Law right to claim damages, and hence is called a Common Law Claim for Damages. It is where the injured worker brings a legal claim, or law suit, against their employer, to obtain lump sum compensation for their work injury and any resulting loss and damage caused by their injury.