If you've been hurt in a road accident in New South Wales, you can generally claim statutory benefits — weekly income payments and treatment expenses — under the CTP (compulsory third party, or "Green Slip") insurance scheme, and in most cases it doesn't matter who caused the crash. If your injuries are more serious, you may also have a lump sum damages claim. Strict time limits apply, and the first one falls just 28 days after the accident.
Frisina Lawyers is a family-run firm that has acted for injured people since 1980, from our offices in Liverpool and Gregory Hills. Here's how the NSW scheme works.
Everyone injured in a motor accident in NSW can apply for statutory benefits from a CTP insurer, no matter who caused the crash. These benefits cover weekly payments for lost income and reasonable and necessary treatment and care. If your injuries are more than "threshold injuries" and another driver was at least partly to blame, you may also be able to claim a lump sum in damages on top of those benefits.
Weekly payments. If you were earning before the accident, you can receive 95% of your pre-accident weekly earnings for the first 13 weeks, then 80% (if you can't work at all) or 85% (if you're back part-time or on reduced duties) from week 14. Weekly payments are subject to a maximum amount set by the scheme, which is re-set each October.
Treatment and care. The insurer pays for reasonable and necessary treatment related to your injuries — medical, rehabilitation, domestic and personal care — plus reasonable travel to get to that treatment. Treatment needed more than five years after the accident is handled by the CTP Care program.
Funeral expenses are also payable, regardless of fault, where an accident causes death.
Three deadlines matter after a NSW road accident: 28 days, three months and three years. Claim within 28 days and your weekly payments are back-dated to the day after the crash. Three months is the standard window to apply for statutory benefits, and three years is the outer limit for a damages claim. You should also report the accident to police within 28 days.
A late claim isn't necessarily fatal — late applications can be accepted with a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay — but the safest course is to get advice and lodge early. If a deadline has already passed, contact us anyway.
A threshold injury is a soft-tissue injury, or a psychological injury that is not a recognised psychiatric illness. The label matters enormously: if your only injuries are threshold injuries, statutory benefits stop at 52 weeks and you cannot claim lump sum damages at all. Whether an injury is "threshold" is one of the most commonly disputed questions in the scheme — and one worth getting advice on early.
A soft-tissue injury means an injury to the tissue that connects, supports or surrounds other structures of the body — muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and the like. Importantly, injuries to nerves, and complete or partial ruptures of tendons, ligaments, menisci or cartilage, are not threshold injuries. Nor are fractures, radiculopathy (nerve-root injury), or a recognised psychiatric illness such as PTSD or diagnosed depression. Acute stress disorder and adjustment disorder, however, are treated as threshold injuries under the scheme's guidelines.
These rules, and the 52-week cut-off, apply to accidents on or after 1 April 2023. Earlier accidents were governed by the old "minor injury" rules, with a 26-week cut-off — another reason to have your particular accident assessed rather than relying on general information.
You can claim common law damages — a lump sum — if your injuries are more than threshold injuries and the accident was caused wholly or partly by the fault of another vehicle's owner or driver. Damages compensate your past and future loss of earnings. Compensation for pain and suffering is only available where your whole person impairment is assessed at more than 10%.
Damages come under two heads only:
Damages don't include treatment and care — those continue as statutory benefits even after a damages settlement. Weekly benefits already paid are offset against a damages award, and timing matters: a damages claim must be made within three years, and lodging it before the two-year mark can keep weekly payments flowing while the claim is resolved — up to three years (WPI of 10% or less) or five years (WPI over 10%). If a serious injury stops you working, you may also have a separate TPD claim through your superannuation.
Anyone injured in a motor vehicle crash in NSW can apply for statutory benefits: drivers, passengers, motorcyclists and their pillion passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. That includes the person who caused the accident. The injury can be physical, psychological or both. A small number of exclusions apply, and crashes connected to your work are treated differently.
If workers compensation is payable for the same injury — for example, a crash while driving for work — the claim goes through the workers compensation system first rather than CTP: see workers compensation. Statutory benefits are also excluded for the at-fault owner or driver of an uninsured vehicle, and while the injured person faces a charge for a serious driving offence connected to the accident (they can be restored if the charge is dropped or ends in an acquittal). If you were hit by an uninsured vehicle, or the vehicle can't be identified, you can still claim — against the Nominal Defendant, the statutory scheme that stands in for the missing insurer. Injured somewhere other than a road? A public liability claim may apply instead.
You can still claim. Statutory benefits are paid even where the accident was entirely your own fault. Being partly to blame mainly affects how long your benefits last and how much a damages claim is worth. The key line is 61%: if you were more than 61% responsible, you were "mostly at fault" and your statutory benefits stop at 52 weeks.
If your share of the blame is 61% or less, weekly payments continue beyond 52 weeks but are reduced to reflect your contributory negligence — the legal term for the part you played in causing the accident or making your injuries worse. The law requires those reductions in some situations, such as drink or drug driving offences. In a damages claim, the lump sum is reduced on the same principle — not wearing a seatbelt is a common example. Fault assessments made by insurers can be challenged, so don't assume the insurer's view is final.
Most CTP insurer decisions can be challenged. The first step is usually an internal review by the insurer, which you should request within 28 days of the decision — the insurer must then complete it within 14 days. If that doesn't resolve things, the dispute goes to the Personal Injury Commission, an independent tribunal that sits outside the insurer entirely.
The Commission deals with merit reviews (such as the amount of your weekly payments), medical disputes (whether an injury is a threshold injury, and your WPI percentage — decided by independent medical assessors), fault disputes and damages assessments. Legal costs in statutory-benefit disputes are capped and regulated. SIRA, the scheme regulator, also runs a free advice line, CTP Assist, on 1300 656 919. We regularly act in these disputes and can tell you frankly whether a challenge is worth pursuing.
Only for two groups: people whose only injuries are threshold injuries, and people who were wholly or mostly at fault (for accidents on or after 1 April 2023). For everyone else, weekly payments can run to 104 weeks — and longer if a damages claim is pending: up to 156 weeks where WPI is 10% or less, or 260 weeks where WPI is over 10%.
Where workers compensation is payable for the same injury, the claim starts in the workers compensation system rather than CTP. Which scheme applies isn't always obvious, and it changes what you can claim — so get advice before lodging anything.
Yes. Claims involving unidentified or uninsured vehicles are made against the Nominal Defendant rather than a normal CTP insurer. Reporting the accident to police within 28 days is especially important here, as the event number helps prove the accident happened.
Yes. The scheme covers psychological injury with or without physical injury. A recognised psychiatric illness — PTSD or diagnosed depression, for example — is a non-threshold injury, which means benefits can continue beyond 52 weeks and a damages claim may be possible. Acute stress disorder and adjustment disorder are treated as threshold injuries.
Your first consultation with Frisina Lawyers is obligation-free. We've acted for injured people since 1980, we're experienced in motor accident claims, and the firm's principal, Anthony Frisina, has been an Accredited Specialist in Personal Injury Law with the Law Society of NSW since 1998. Ask us how our fees work for your claim — we'll explain everything before you commit to anything.
Call (02) 9602 4999, email lawyers@frisina.com.au, or get in touch online. We'll see you at Liverpool or Gregory Hills — or read more about the firm and our team first.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Time limits apply to compensation claims — get advice about your own situation as soon as you can.