You are driving along obeying speed limits when suddenly a vehicle drifts to the wrong side of the road slams into you head on. You are thrown hard against the seat belt, the airbag bursts into your face, your knee slams into the dash board, your neck snaps bath and forth and your shoulders are badly wrenched by the force of the collision.
You have to have surgery on a knee and both shoulders. You have permanent injuries to knees, neck and shoulders. Doctors deem your injuries are less than 10 per cent physical impairment under the tough current guidelines.
You can't work as much as you used to because of your physical pain, let alone your mental fears. Before the accident you earned $750 a week. Now you can earn only $200.
Under the current compulsory third party (CTP green slip) scheme you can be awarded a payment that helps with your medical and mental health bills, as well as covering you for loss of income. You'd rather the accident never happened, but at least the payment helps you get your life back on track.
This was a real case. The accident victim - a manual labourer with a wife and young children - went to Stacks/The Law Firm for help. A Stacks lawyer specialising in compensation law helped get the victim $915,000 through the CTP scheme.
The payment included compensation for future loss of income. It will help the victim's young family cope in the years ahead with its much reduced income.
Maurie Stack OAM, chairman of the law firm, warns that under plans by the NSW government to change the CTP scheme, this victim's compensation would be cut by $800,000 to somewhere between $90,000 and $150,000.
The changes slash the level of benefits available to the injured person for loss of income, and they will be cut off entirely after three to five years.
"It will also take away your right to sue the negligent driver who caused the accident," said Mr Stack, a former president of the Law Society.
"Under the government's no-fault proposal, 90 per cent of those injured as a result of the negligence of others will lose their right to sue. So the family man hit by the driver who was on the wrong side of the road is effectively having his entitlements slashed in order to provide equal compensation for the negligent driver.
"The government says it wants to do this to lower green slips by about $50. What they're not saying is you'll have to spend thousands more to take out your own income protection insurance to match what we already have through the CTP scheme."
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