Alfonsas Stonis personal injury claim - short story

During my personal injury claim process, and I had to contact different organisations. So, I have to provide a short background story. The difficulty is that often information that is relevant in one case is not relevant in another. The best solution that I have found so far is to have one short story listing just main events and another one writing about impact. I found that this way I can reuse my stories many times.

After being injured in a road traffic incident in 2015, I found that the personal injury process has been very difficult. I am still looking for an organisation that could help me to deal with the consequences of this incident.

Background

My name is Alfonsas Stonis. I was born in Lithuania 1974 and I migrated to Australia at the end of 2007.

I studied Computer Science at Kaunas University of Technology and completed my PhD degree in 2002. I also studied economics and management as my goal was to build my own company. I started working as a software developer in my second year of studies with small projects and soon moved to full time employment. Later it included management roles and finally starting my own consulting business.

I was amazed by Australia's wild beauty and I saw many opportunities here. I took a break in 2011 for personal reasons. Refreshed and full of energy I started working on my own product in 2014, something that was on my plans for a very long time. I decided to adjust my plans a bit to establish new contacts by going back to full time employment in 2015.

Injury

I was cycling in Sydney when a car from oncoming traffic made a right turn straight into me on 2015-03-30. I was sure I was going to die when I saw a car accelerating towards me. I survived, but among other things, chronic pain and the fear stayed. Since then, I am struggling with PTSD.

I was crossing an intersection on the green light. It happened during peak hours, next to Sydney Central train station. There were witnesses confirming the driver's fault. The driver Michael Gill, Programmed Facility Management Pty Ltd, stated that cyclists have no right to be on the road so he was in his right to hit one when see one on the road. Unfortunately the policeman constable Nathan Jam Dierikx, Surrey Hills police station, attending the scene wrote a report in the driver's favour. He excluded my and witnesses statements confirming the driver's fault. Derikx also did not look for any other evidence. The driver got away without any consequences.

Battle with QBE

Dealing with QBE, drivers car insurance, was a re-traumatizing experience. I was pressured to withdraw my claim starting from the first call from Jean Reyes, claims officer QBE, after I notified them about the road collision. QBE never paid for any treatment. Instead, I was sent to different specialists with an empty promise that QBE will pay after assessment. I also never got their psychologist assessment report, but instead later I was sent to another one. Empty promises that they are finalising their decision about liability and compensation will contact me with a treatment plan and compensation offer soon were very damaging. As it never came true and only made me feel helpless. By law they are required to respond in 3 months, but it took 3 years for QBE. They did it only after I stopped believing their promises and contacted lawyers. The whole process from QBE was based on lies and disregard of the law.

I initially contacted solicitor Gillian Potts from Law Partners to represent me. She later included barrister Kenneth Pryde. I was unhappy with their representation. I felt that they did not collect or submit important information about my health problems (for example they withheld the information that I have PTSD and downplayed it to depression). At the end of April 2020, I got a report by Vanitha Moodley (a psychologist hired by Timothy Ceballos, solicitor from McInnes Wilson Lawyers representing QBE) that had 146 incorrect statements. Many statements were very absurd, for example stating that my girlfriend was making meals for me before going to work, but we live on different continents. At that time she lived in Europe and I was in Australia. Another example, that I was affected by the events that did happen only a few years later. For other statements not even a teleportation device or time travel would make them true due to inconsistencies. I asked Law Partners to dispute it. Instead, Law Partners used that report to push me to settle under very bad conditions and charged exaggerated fees of $178,327.22.

I changed solicitors to Moya de Luca-Leonard. At first Leonard organised an assessment by a psychiatrist who specialises in PTSD and submitted the documents I sent to her to PIC. Independent assessment confirmed PTSD and significant impact on my life with 19% whole person impairment. However, after this, in her submissions to PIC Leonard withheld information about errors in Moodley report and factually incorrect statements by Ceballos. Leonard then pushed me to accept an unfavourable settlement without any compensation for loss of past income. When I asked to submit documents to PIC for independent assessment Leonard resigned. She sent me a bill of $77,071.50.

I had to find a new solicitor quickly to prepare and submit documents and represent me at the PIC assessment. Peter Livers offered to represent me based on regulated fees (I did not know what it was). He also said that he has 30 years of experience in personal injury claims and is highly experienced in it. Livers did not help prepare documents for PIC damages assessment and was dragging time submitting information and insisting that I do not complain about misinformation from Ceballos. He insisted that it is better if it comes from his name. However, he sent nothing and during the PIC assessment conference completely misrepresented me.

PIC member Hugh Macken in his determination relied on some misinformation from Ceballos and added a lot on its own. I got a compensation very close to the possible minimum. During the whole preparation for the assessment conference Livers was pushing very hard that I am trying too hard, that we will appeal and it is very easy if I do not like anything about determination. Livers broke his promise to appeal. I was left in a situation where it was physically impossible to find a new lawyer and submit an appeal on time. My health took a heavy hit and I had no choice but to accept determination and focus on survival. I ended up with a great feeling of injustice. I am left to deal with exaggerated fees, misconduct and corruption.

It seems to me that the QBE solicitor had more to say about what my solicitors do rather than my instructions.

Complaints about misconduct

I wrote complaints to organisations overseeing different parts of the process and found that most of them are part of the problem. All organisations are with New South Wales (NSW).

Police. I contacted Constable Dierikx several times asking to include my and witnesses’ statements, and do proper investigation, but in vain. On 2015-10-30 I contacted Surry Hills station sergeant asking to investigate. He asked con Dierikx to include the witness statement. Later con Dierikx called me and told me that he will not do this because the witness confirmed the driver's fault. Corruption seems to be the only logical explanation.

LECC. On 2017-12-18 I contacted The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) with the complaint about con Dierikx actions. On a phone call from a policewoman from Surry Hills I was told that she did not investigate corruption to protect upcoming promotion for con Dickson who also attended the scene after the road collision. The official response from detective superintendent Doherty D. R. was “that Constable Dierikx be formally counselled in relation to his inadequate investigation of this incident”. No consequences for the driver or investigation of corrupt conduct.

SIRA. For more than several months QBE insurance was promising to finalise their decision about liability, but never did so. I called the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) to ask what I can do, but I was told that QBE may take as much time as they want. Later I asked my lawyers how to report QBE, I was told that I can do it only when my claim is finalised.

On 2023-03-17 I wrote a complaint to SIRA about a fraudulent Vanitha Moodley report. Emma Thirgood, senior advisor from Feedback and Complaints, wrote that SIRA will take no action, but might consider my complaint in the upcoming renewal of the list of medical specialists allowed to provide expert witness statements for personal injury claims. However, on the phone she explained that there were too many complaints about Moodley and my complaint will not be considered as it might negatively impact Moodley approval. Moodley accreditation was approved for another term.

HCCC, Psychology Council. On 2023-03-13 my wife in my name submitted a complaint about the Vanitha Moodley report (146 incorrect statements) to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). HCCC forward complaint to Psychology Council. The Psychology Council closed the complaint saying, “the council was satisfied that the practitioner followed appropriate guidelines in their report”, signed by executive officer Farina Bains. I wrote to the Psychology Council that I disagree with this statement and asked what next steps I can take but I did not receive a reply.

PIC. I had several issues with the Personal Injury Commission (PIC), for which I seeked corrections but I did not get any result.

I received Macken determination on 2023-07-20. It has many factual errors. For example: Item 18. Macken stated "The history he has given to numerous doctors is confused to the point where, ...". The truth is the opposite. All doctors including independent ones assessed me as an accurate and consistent historian: 2022-09-30 PIC Review of Medical Assessment Certificate of Determination item 111 "We consider him a reliable and accurate historian", with exception of Moodley report. On 2024-08-08 I submitted a request to fix obvious errors in Macken determination (24 items). The PIC reply was that there were no errors.

On 2024-02-08 I requested a transcript from an assessment conference. The PIC sent it to me, but it contained only a small fraction of the conference. I requested an audio file. It was only 16 min long. I was told that Macken was responsible for recording and he uploaded the same length video file the day after the conference. My request for a video file to see its metadata was denied. On 2024-07-17 I sent a GIPA request for the video file. The request has been denied by Janet Wagstaff, Privacy Officer Director, Legal & Policy PIC. On 2024-10-25 I submitted a request for external review of my GIPA application to the Information Commissioner.

OLSC. I wrote several complaints to the Office of Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC): 2023-05-13 about Gillian Potts and Kenneth Pryde, 2023-10-29 about Moya de Luca-Leonard and her barrister Michelle Campbell, 2024-02-19 about Peter Livers, 2024-04-14 about Timothy Ceballos. The complaint about Ceballos was forwarded to the Law Society. All complaints have been dismissed without any analysis. The complaints about Potts and Pryde were dismissed because some actions were outside a 3 year time window and time extension was not granted. Other complaints were dismissed mainly because the complaints are about the lawyers, but I could have complained about the outcome of the PIC assessment conference and then it would not be their responsibility according to Samantha Gulliver, Legal Services Commissioner, and C. Chay, team leader, Investigations Professional Standards for Law Society. I submitted the requests for review, but previous responses do not leave much hope.

ICAC. I submitted 2 complaints to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC): 2020-04-28 about medical assessor Matthew Jones from SIRA and Hugh Maken. For each I got a letter from Mark Nola, senior assessment officer, with the decision not to investigate the matter as the information is not sufficient to indicate a reasonable likelihood that corrupt conduct might have occurred.

Current issues

All these issues remain unsolved. It seems that the whole process from the moment you get injured is difficult, unfair and full of misconduct. There might be many people doing their job properly in these organisations, but the ones I had to deal with and complained about seem to practise this misconduct on a regular basis and the current system fails to protect affected people.

If you can help with any of them it would be greatly appreciated.

Presently I am looking at how to dispute Law Partners (Potts and Pryde) fees at Supreme Court Cost Assessment service. BTW it seems Law Partners became willing to negotiate after learning that I am writing about my whole experience on my website roadtrafficinjury.net.

How I am right now

After I got injured some part of me got lost, locked away. I cannot think or feel properly. I am in constant feeling of overwhelming danger and some parts get shut down as not important right now for survival. I started getting it back 5 years after the injury when I went through a PTSD treatment program, but it was set back by the attack of QBE (their psychologist and solicitor) and betrayal of my solicitors. I started getting back some feelings again about 2 years ago (it goes in waves, getting better and worse) a bit more permanently. However, it did not come back fully and the PIC assessment conference was a terrible hit. It has been almost a year now and at night when I wake up I can experience all my feelings. O my good it is painful. I get full awareness of loss. All these 9 years I was in either full autopilot mode or in at least partial shutdown mode. While I can not remember most of 9 years and I was not experiencing it fully, the suffering was experienced at some subconscious level and is being stored. It hits me with the full force. It is too painful and it is too much. All my insides are burning. I can not take it for a long time. I can not take it physically. It has to be locked up again, I just would like to be able to access it. I am not sure if I will be able to sleep anymore tonight. While I will not be able to feel it full it still will be taking my energy (or at least if feels like it). My hyper vigilance is at an absurdly high level. Fridge made some strange noises. I wanted to jump as if my life is in physical danger. I will exhaust all my energy very soon. The remaining of it will be used to lock feelings away. It is important to be able to feel, but even more important is to be able to act. It is too much right now. So, I am writing it down, while I still can. My heart is in so much pain from overworking.

Oh my god. #$%%... Breath... Few... I got an SMS. It is a post-call survey. I get it after every call to Men's Line Australia. I felt like someone shot a bullet at me. I cannot take it anymore. I knew I would get an SMS. It comes after every call. Yet, I forgot. I need to focus on distractions. Dying from a heart attack would be very stupid. Just a last thought, before I go: I lost not only 9 years of my life, but a major part of 20 years before. I spend improving my skills as a software developer the big part of 20 years before I got injured. I really loved what I was doing and wanted to be the best at it. This is not mentioning my private life.

I need to start locking my feelings away. At least now I am doing it with full awareness, I hope that it will let me access at least some of them later. I will be like a zombie today. As soon as I start relaxing, I will feel how tired I am. I am completely deflated. I keep telling myself this is the past. It is gone. I would like to focus on what I can do now. However, I cannot. My head is not working. To know what to do right now I would need to know where I am, and it is too overwhelming. Instead, I will focus on the little I can do now. It is going to be very little, but this is all I can do. I cannot even think of how sad it is as it will be overwhelming too.