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Do your injuries meet the legal definition of ‘serious injury’?
To help us understand if you have a ‘serious injury’ you may need to:
- Provide us with information we ask you for
- Attend medical examinations
We may also ask for information from your treaters to help us decide if you have a ‘serious injury’.
Your lawyer (if you have one) will:
- Work with you to understand if you have a ‘serious injury’
- Act on your behalf to seek a ‘serious injury’ decision from the TAC
- Help you gather any information we need.
Was someone else at fault?
To help us understand who was at fault in the accident you will need to:
- Provide us with information we ask you for
- Engage a personal injury lawyer. They can provide independent legal advice on your role in the accident and how it may impact your entitlement to common law compensation.
If your role in the accident is unclear we might:
- Independently investigate the accident circumstances
- Have a view on the level of fault of everyone involved in the accident
Your lawyer will:
- Advise if you are likely to be eligible
- Act on your behalf and work with us on the next steps
- Work with you if the TAC believes you may be at fault or partly at fault in the accident. They will look at the details of your accident and understand your situation.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about their accident and the injuries they sustained. At this stage of the process we learn that someone else was at fault in their accident and their injuries were likely to meet the legal definition of a 'serious injury'.
John: We were travelling on the Great Ocean Road, towards Anglesea. W
TAC clients John and Marie talk about their accident and the injuries they sustained. At this stage of the process we learn that someone else was at fault in their accident and their injuries were likely to meet the legal definition of a 'serious injury'.
Step 1: Understanding your injuries and accident circumstances
Do your injuries meet the legal definition of ‘serious injury’?
To help us understand if you have a ‘serious injury’ you may need to:
- Provide us with information we ask you for
- Attend medical examinations
We may also ask for information from your treaters to help us decide if you have a ‘serious injury’.
Your lawyer (if you have one) will:
- Work with you to understand if you have a ‘serious injury’
- Act on your behalf to seek a ‘serious injury’ decision from the TAC
- Help you gather any information we need.
Was someone else at fault?
To help us understand who was at fault in the accident you will need to:
- Provide us with information we ask you for
- Engage a personal injury lawyer. They can provide independent legal advice on your role in the accident and how it may impact your entitlement to common law compensation.
If your role in the accident is unclear we might:
- Independently investigate the accident circumstances
- Have a view on the level of fault of everyone involved in the accident
Your lawyer will:
- Advise if you are likely to be eligible
- Act on your behalf and work with us on the next steps
- Work with you if the TAC believes you may be at fault or partly at fault in the accident. They will look at the details of your accident and understand your situation.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about their accident and the injuries they sustained. At this stage of the process we learn that someone else was at fault in their accident and their injuries were likely to meet the legal definition of a 'serious injury'.
John: We were travelling on the Great Ocean Road, towards Anglesea. W
TAC clients John and Marie talk about their accident and the injuries they sustained. At this stage of the process we learn that someone else was at fault in their accident and their injuries were likely to meet the legal definition of a 'serious injury'.
Step 2: Deciding if you are eligible
We will decide if you are eligible, based on information provided.
To make this decision we will consider if you have a ‘serious injury’ and if someone else was at fault.
We will write to you or your lawyer (if you have one) with this decision.
If we decide you are eligible
If you are eligible and have a ‘serious injury’ we will give you a Serious Injury Certificate or confirm you have an impairment of 30% or more. This means you can engage a lawyer to progress your common law claim.
You need to:
- Engage a lawyer (if you don’t already have one)
- They can act on your behalf and start negotiations.
If we decide you are not eligible
- You can ask a lawyer for advice on how to review our decision.
You and your lawyer will negotiate with us to agree on your compensation amount.
In this final step, you will need to:
- Work with your personal injury lawyer to negotiate the amount of your compensation
- Attend a settlement conference with the TAC
- Receive the compensation once the amount has been agreed.
We will:
- Assess the amount of compensation you should receive
- Attend a settlement conference to hear from you and your lawyer
- Work with you and your personal injury lawyer to agree on the compensation amount.
Your lawyer will:
- Assess the amount of compensation they think you should receive
- Act on your behalf to negotiate with us on your compensation amount
- Act on your behalf in Court proceedings if we can’t agree on the settlement
- Attend your settlement conference.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about the sense of closure they had once their common law matter was settled.
John: For the serious injury claim, I think it was just done by exchange of letters, but once we progressed through that to the personal injury, the common law side of it, then we went to conference.
John (TAC): Once TAC have granted the client the serious injury certificate, pursuant to the common law protocols, there’ll be an informal settlement conference and that’s an opportunity for the TAC representative to meet with the client and the client’s lawyer and invariably, a barrister to try and bring about a resolution of the client’s common law claim for compensation.
John and Marie's lawyer: Now you have your day in conference much earlier than the court proceeding and it’s less daunting and it probably achieves a similar sort of outcome.
Marie: It turned out to be a day where the heavens absolutely opened, it was a deluge, it was flooding everywhere in the city, it was completely, there were umbrellas and you couldn’t move, so it was quite an atmospheric day. We were in a room and the TAC representative said he’d like to meet us and we went in for a brief period of time and he was actually just very kind, wasn’t he? He just acknowledged what we’d been through.
John: It worked out quite successfully, I think.
Marie: There were lots of amounts of money being discussed and I just wanted it to be over, really, I was very relieved when it was over. In a way, it made you realise how much you’d lost, how the impact on your life had been so severe and knocked you completely sideways in a different direction. It was like another hurdle that you’d gotten over to know that it was all being put behind you and that you wouldn’t have to think about it again until today, (laughs) in such detail.
John and Marie's lawyer: The sense of finality, the ending to a common law claim, there was certainly a sense of closure for John and Marie. They’re not alone, this is a very common thing. And that's actually really good to see, because I think that's part of, in a sense, grieving. Grieving the accident, grieving this whole process and moving on.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about the sense of closure they had once their common law matter was settled.
Step 3: Negotiation and settlement
You and your lawyer will negotiate with us to agree on your compensation amount.
In this final step, you will need to:
- Work with your personal injury lawyer to negotiate the amount of your compensation
- Attend a settlement conference with the TAC
- Receive the compensation once the amount has been agreed.
We will:
- Assess the amount of compensation you should receive
- Attend a settlement conference to hear from you and your lawyer
- Work with you and your personal injury lawyer to agree on the compensation amount.
Your lawyer will:
- Assess the amount of compensation they think you should receive
- Act on your behalf to negotiate with us on your compensation amount
- Act on your behalf in Court proceedings if we can’t agree on the settlement
- Attend your settlement conference.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about the sense of closure they had once their common law matter was settled.
John: For the serious injury claim, I think it was just done by exchange of letters, but once we progressed through that to the personal injury, the common law side of it, then we went to conference.
John (TAC): Once TAC have granted the client the serious injury certificate, pursuant to the common law protocols, there’ll be an informal settlement conference and that’s an opportunity for the TAC representative to meet with the client and the client’s lawyer and invariably, a barrister to try and bring about a resolution of the client’s common law claim for compensation.
John and Marie's lawyer: Now you have your day in conference much earlier than the court proceeding and it’s less daunting and it probably achieves a similar sort of outcome.
Marie: It turned out to be a day where the heavens absolutely opened, it was a deluge, it was flooding everywhere in the city, it was completely, there were umbrellas and you couldn’t move, so it was quite an atmospheric day. We were in a room and the TAC representative said he’d like to meet us and we went in for a brief period of time and he was actually just very kind, wasn’t he? He just acknowledged what we’d been through.
John: It worked out quite successfully, I think.
Marie: There were lots of amounts of money being discussed and I just wanted it to be over, really, I was very relieved when it was over. In a way, it made you realise how much you’d lost, how the impact on your life had been so severe and knocked you completely sideways in a different direction. It was like another hurdle that you’d gotten over to know that it was all being put behind you and that you wouldn’t have to think about it again until today, (laughs) in such detail.
John and Marie's lawyer: The sense of finality, the ending to a common law claim, there was certainly a sense of closure for John and Marie. They’re not alone, this is a very common thing. And that's actually really good to see, because I think that's part of, in a sense, grieving. Grieving the accident, grieving this whole process and moving on.
TAC clients John and Marie talk about the sense of closure they had once their common law matter was settled.
Finding a lawyer
You need a lawyer to act on your behalf to negotiate and settle a common law compensation claim.
The Law Institute of Victoria provides a ‘Find Your Lawyer’ service. This service can help you find a lawyer and their contact details. You can call them on (03) 9607 9550 during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm) or visit www.liv.asn.au/find-a-lawyer.
You can access a free half hour consultation with your chosen law firm to discuss your potential claim. If you use a law firm to act on your behalf, you should ask about the costs involved.
We recommend choosing a law firm that specialises in TAC claims and operates within the Common Law Protocols.
Find out more in the How to find and choose a lawyer fact sheet
Common Law Protocols
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The Common Law Protocols are an agreement that outlines how the TAC and your personal injury lawyer work together during your common law compensation claim.
The Protocols were developed by the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV), the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) and the TAC to make the legal process faster and easier. Most lawyers who are members of the LIV or the ALA follow them.
Engaging a lawyer who follows the Protocols will generally result in a faster and easier outcome for your claim. It is also likely your case will resolve without having to go to Court. This may also mean less legal costs for you.
Your lawyer will help you through the process and provide you with tailored and independent legal advice.
You are entitled to ask a lawyer if they operate within the Protocols before engaging them.
The below documents summarise the Protocols. These have been agreed by the TAC, LIV and ALA. They cover common law entitlements, assessment procedures, information exchange and settlement.
