In this podcast, personal injury lawyer, Tim Driscoll discusses the possibility of making a worker’s compensation claim even years after the accident had happened.
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New Speaker |
You’re listening to a BPC podcast. |
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Dan: |
Every year, thousands of Australians are injured at work through no fault of their own. The good news is that a majority seek legal help to recover compensation for any economic loss and medical expenses that they may have incurred as a result of the accident. Sadly, there are those that choose not to act, only to find out years later that the injury sustained is now having an impact. In this context, is such a person able to claim compensation years after the event? Well, I’m with Tim Driscoll, a personal injury lawyer from BPC Lawyers. Tim, what’s the answer for these people in this circumstance? |
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Tim Driscoll: |
Well, yes, there is a very limited time period in which people must make a claim for compensation, particularly in workers’ compensation in New South Wales. For most workers, they have a period of only six months from the date of injury to actually lodge a claim for compensation. Now, there are some exceptions, however, and those exceptions apply for people who have what’s called a legitimate excuse for not bringing that claim within six months. Those exceptions effectively are about a person who was ignorant, or mistaken, or was outside of New South Wales, or for some other similar excuse, but still were able to make their claim within three years of the accident, but there’s some more joy for those people who make a, who have a claim for injury, which, for an injury which is substantial or has suffered what is called a serious and permanent disablement. For those people, they’re able to bring that claim outside of that three-year period, but it is a very unusual situation that the courts will grant any further leave above that last provision there. |
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Dan: |
Tim, what about if, say, a worker is under the age of 18 at the time of the accident? Does that change anything? |
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Tim Driscoll: |
Not really, not for workers’ compensation benefits. There are other jurisdictions where the age of the particular applicant may very well change that situation, but most people who have a work-related injury ordinarily are either apprentices, or those who are, obviously, over the age of 18. If they are, however, having some form of incapacity because of their age or what not, then they may be able to apply for some compensation outside of that six-month period for those issues, for those exceptions that I provided for, including ignorance, mistake, and so forth. |
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Dan: |
Tim, what would be an example of ignorance or mistake? |
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Tim Driscoll: |
Well, ignorance, I suppose, for example, if an injured worker was of the view held by, for example, a general practitioner or their employer that they didn’t have to make a claim within a certain period of time, or perhaps they’ve never made a claim for compensation before and thought that their rights were otherwise protected by some other means of compensation, then that kind of ignorance or mistake would most certainly see a higher degree of probability that they’ll overcome that six-month period restriction. |
| Dan: |
Tim, I’m assuming that these applications, can be quite problematic, but I’m also assuming that to run one of these matters could also be problematic as well, given that, say, for example, an injured worker might have incurred the injuries 10 years previously, but yet in the duration of that time, there may well have been other injuries or antagonising factors that have also impacted upon that person’s ability or inability to continue to do work. |
| Tim Driscoll: |
Absolutely, and the workers’ compensation legislation is very complex, and it certainly, when applying it to those very complex factual situations, means that injury workers should certainly seek some legal advice very quickly, because obviously, lawyers who are within workers’ compensation area of law, we’ve seen it all, and we know what to do and what issues come up within the Commission and how to deal with them appropriately. |
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Dan: |
Tim, thanks for joining me. |
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Tim Driscoll: |
Thank you very much. |
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New Speaker: |
Thank you for listening. If you have any questions, please call BPC Lawyers on 028 280-6900. |