TAC
Transport Accident Claims
The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) provides assistance and compensation to individuals who have been injured as a result of a transport accident that has occurred in Victoria or involving a motor vehicle which is registered in Victoria. Circumstances in which an individual has been injured as a result of a transport accident include vehicle passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists.
If you think that you may be entitled to assistance from the TAC, it is important to lodge a claim as soon as practicable. Any significant or unexplained delay in seeking treatment or lodging a claim may result in the claim being denied. If you are unsure as to whether you have an entitlement to TAC benefits, you should contact a solicitor and seek legal advice.
An accepted TAC claim has three components of cover to it:
-
Loss of earnings payments
-
Medical and like expenses
-
A lump sum permanent impairment payment.
Payments for lost earnings
If you have an accepted TAC claim and you were an earner prior to the transport accident and as a result of the transport accident you have suffered a loss of earnings, you are entitled to receive a weekly payment in lieu of your lost earnings. A weekly payment will only be paid upon a presentation of a Certificate of Capacity. Certificates of Capacity should be obtained from your treating doctor. The first Certificate of Capacity must be for a period of no more than 14 days and every certificate thereafter must not exceed 28 days. A Certificate of Capacity is effectively an invoice to receive weekly payments. Weekly payments are paid at a percentage of your ordinary earnings. Ordinary earnings are generally calculated on the basis of what you earned in the 12 months prior to the transport accident.
The TAC will pay 80% of your gross pre-injury average weekly earnings for up to 18 months after your transport accident. At the end of the initial 18 months, the TAC will pay further payments if you can demonstrate that you are incapacitated for any work that you are qualified to do by reason of your injuries. If you satisfy that test, the TAC may pay an additional 18 months at 80% your net pre-injury average weekly earnings. If you have suffered a partial loss of earnings but have returned to some form of employment, the TAC will pay you a weekly payment which will top up your total earnings to 85% of your pre-injury average weekly earnings.
At the end of this second 18-month period, your weekly payments will stop unless you have been assessed as suffering from a whole person impairment rating of 50% or more.
Medical and like expenses
If you have an accepted TAC claim, the TAC must pay for all reasonably incurred medical and like expenses. In order to receive reimbursement of medical expenses, they must be submitted to the TAC for payment within two years of the expense being incurred.
Medical expenses include attendances at doctors, allied health such as physiotherapy and psychology and medication. TAC must also pay reasonably related expenses such as home help, home modifications, travel expenses relating to medical treatment, rehabilitation assistance and re-training courses that have been approved in advance, childcare and any reasonable travel costs of family remembers where the travel is related to the injury arising from the transport accident.
Permanent Impairment Lump Sum
The TAC legislation permits everyone with an accepted TAC claim to claim compensation for permanent disabilities and impairments caused by the transport accident. It is a claim made in addition to the receipt of medical and like expenses and does not require the proof of any fault. In other words, you can make this claim even if the transport accident was your fault.
To access this lump sum benefit, you must demonstrate that you have suffered a permanent injury and that injury has stabilised. This means that your condition must have reached a point where you are unlikely to get substantially better or worse in the future. Once your condition has stabilized you will be assessed by medical experts according to specific guidelines to determine your level of whole person impairment. In order to receive compensation, you must obtain an assessment of at least 11%.
In circumstances where you are likely to rate more than 11% threshold on the AMA Guides but your injuries have not completely stabilised, you may make a claim for an interim impairment benefit prior to your injuries being stable. Once your injury is stabilised, you will then again be assessed and if you receive a higher assessment than the interim assessment, you will be paid a further impairment benefit.
Common Law Damages Claim
A common law damages claim is a claim that is separate and distinct from your TAC claim. A common law claim is a claim made pursuant to the common law and it seeks to compensate you for the permanent impact of your injury on your enjoyment of activities of daily life. To be successful in the claim you must have (1) a serious injury and (2) the injury must have been caused by the negligence of another party.
To have a serious injury you must have either a 30% whole person impairment pursuant to the American Medical Association Guides 4th Edition or you must meet the narrative test of serious injury. The narrative test is the most common way to establish serious injury. To satisfy the narrative test of serious injury you must establish that your injury is permanent and that the permanent impact of the injury on your life is considerable/severe.
If it is that you have satisfied the test of serious injury, in order to receive compensation you must show that the serious injury has been caused by negligence. To establish negligence, you need to show that the accident was caused by the fault of another party.