Road traffic injury

When I got injured (I was hit by a car when cycling) I was desperately looking for information what to do. Unfortunately, could not find any useful guide. So, now after having lots of terrible experience I am writing one. I need to pack 9 years of experience, so it will take a while. Please come back later or contact me if you do not find information. Also please keep in mind that this is based only on my experience and the information I was able to find.

Content

The goal of this site is to help other injured people to get better faster and easier than I did. I went through terrible journey that could been much easier and it is still ongoing. Current information can be grouped into two main groups:

resource: there were many resources that can be useful. Finding them might be quite a challenge. So, I list what I found to be useful and what not.
my experience: there is a huge difference between how things were meant to work and what is actually happening. I faced a straight disregard of law, lying and actions that can be explained by corruption (however, I do not think I have resources to prove it) by QBE and their solicitors.

Current information can be grouped into two main groups:

other people experience: in time I also plan to add other people's experience especially to be able to select good solicitors and avoid bad ones.
tool to guide through the process: as I was excellent software developer before the injury, I cannot stop thinking how much I would have benefit from the proper tools. So, as soon as I recover enough to be able to code, I will start working on it. It is a huge investment, but it can help a lot of people and make process very easy. Will I be able to make money of it, that is completely different story.

Everything I write on this site is based on my own experience. I am not a lawyer and I can not give legal advice, nor I intent too. However, after I got injured I was desperately looking for someone who could share their experience and I could not find it. So, now I am sharing mine hoping that it will help someone.

After I got injured I had many questions:

I was cycling and I got hit by a car, what do I next?
After the injury I had amnesia and did not remember what happened when I was brought to ED. I was feeling terrible cold in waiting room, so I got my self discharged. However, now at home I am in terrible pain and remembered what has happened. What shall I do?

You got injured what do you do next?

The same things apply if someone you know got injured and you want to help them. Actually it is very important to provide help to injured people and for many more reasons than you might first realize. In short, what I have learned and I wish I have done:

Collect contacts of witnesses
Call police
Call ambulance
Look for help/support
Follow up with doctors
Inform insurance
Follow up with police
Fill in personal injury form
Find solicitors

Police

The police might be one of the first places where you expect to get help after getting injured. My experience with police in Australia is that it is the place where you have least chance to get help especially if you got injured in road traffic collision. I had to deal with police twice:

2015-03-30 road traffic injury - police went out of their way to make sure that the driver gets away without any consequences. I do suspect corruption.
2024-10-25 traffic offence - I am at very early stages. It is too early to make any conclusions.

Trauma

The one thing that I was not aware and was not told about is an impact of trauma. There is physical impact that is very easy to notice, however, there is also psychological impact. Together they may make all process exceptionally difficult to deal with. This happened to me. The amount of support you receive may significantly impact how trauma will affect you in the long run. While some people including medical professionals become more aware of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in most cases you still can not expect that people will know what it is. I will dedicate way more space speaking about the impact of trauma. However, in short just keep in mind that PTSD is very debilitating illness and it can make it physically impossible to deal with insurance (and especially such nasty as QBE).

Understanding your situation

I found this resource recently. I think I have checked it some time ago, but due to my problems with memory I do not remember it properly. Anyway, I do recommend having a look at NSW State Library about compensation and insurance.

It also provides link to another resource about Financial Rights Centre.

Finding a good solicitor

After getting injured you may need to deal with two or three institutions:

police
insurance company
previous lawyers

Depending on your situation you may need help with all these problems. There might be same one or you may need two that specializes in these areas. There is some help that you can find to deal with police. However, there is basically monopoly by personal injury lawyers to deal with insurance companies. I have very bad experience working with them. I met only very few who left good impression. Choosing right solicitor will not only significantly affect outcome, but also how difficult fight will be. I am left with the feeling that it is exceptionally corrupt system. I write about my terrible experience with exaggerated legal fees. I am trying to collect more information about reliable lawyers, so far have a little, but if you are interested in references drop me an email.

Problems

There were some major problems that unfortunately no one talks or writes about. However, it will be the main problem you will face when dealing with road traffic trauma/injury claims. This is just a short list of main problems. However, even this is enough to help you to get into understanding that there will be unexpected obstacles, that should not be there, and you would not expect them in other areas.

Corruption

It seems corruption is the major factor that determines success of your claim. Insurance companies like QBE are in this game and use it as their main tool to reduce compensations you may receive. I just simply have no other explanation for some actions of my lawyers and the tribunal decision I got for my claim.

Personal Injury Lawyers are in the same game

Personal Injury Lawyers are close circle of lawyers who work for injured people, insurance companies and the government organization supervising them. Most of them like the system and refuse to take any steps that can compromise the existing system. So, if you try to get to court you may find it being mission impossible. I have been fighting for it for 8 years and I finally give up. My physical health started deteriorating rapidly and it became very likely that I will not be able to continue fight just because I may not be alive. So, now I am taking some time off, till I know that my health is at the level that I can continue.

Scam

The actions by my previous lawyers, from firm called Law Partners, can be explained only as them running a scam, where injured person (me) is a victim.

Exaggerated costs

Some solicitors push you to settle just to make sure that there is no questioning of their legal fees. While they have legal fees grossly exaggerated.

Negligence

Among all this there is huge level of negligence. Solicitors will not take even simply actions that they should be doing and makes huge impact to your claim. Damaging it further. However, it plays well into corruption and scamming.

Incompetence

I like the rule: do not look for evil intent if you can explain something by plain stupidity. I try to apply this rule to actions of my solicitors. However, very often even very stretched power of stupidity cannot explain their actions and the problems mentioned above come as only possible explanation.

Ways to look and check solicitor

As for any service there are many ways to look who can provide it. I had to look for solicitor for my claim several times and unfortunately there is no good way. I hope to be able to provide reliable information about solicitors so that you can make informed decision whom you want to chose. In mean time here is what I have learned so far while looking for solicitor in all the ways I could think of: getting advice from friends, asking in Facebook groups, various [Legal aid | legal aid]] organizations, searching with different search engines on Web and contacting law society NSW for referrals. None of these gave good results. However, I am happy to share my lessons on how to find a good solicitor. Please write to me to share your experience, both about search and some particular solicitor you worked with.

Legal fees

One of the problems I faced is exaggerated legal fees.