How long will my claim take?

Anywhere between 30 days and 30 years!

But if you want the average, it’s 14 months – according to the Motor Accident Insurance Commission.

If you have landed on this post, then it’s safe to say you are trying to determine how long a claim takes to replace lost income and superannuation as a result of a set-back that was not your fault. We have just developed this new worksheet to help you estimate how long your claim will take based on your unique situation.

“Can you tell me how long my claim will take?”

The best way to answer this is through this short 5 minute story.

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Let me tell you about Sara….

Sara is a doting mother to four kids all under the age of 12, 1 girl and 3 boys. Sara works part time as a teacher’s aid at her the kids’ school in The Gap. She lives with her husband, Joe, in the suburb of Keperra. It was a Wednesday afternoon when Sara was taking one of her sons to their football training. Upon dropping him off, she decided to head to the ALDI supermarket close by to collect some ingredients for the Spaghetti Bolognese she was making for dinner that night. Sara was turning right into Settlement Road when an oncoming car ran a red light and slammed into the side of Sara’s car. Sara was left with severe whiplash, a broken collarbone and significant bruising. An ambulance was called and Sara was rushed to hospital. Sara injuries following the accident were so severe she had to take 2 months off to recover and when she returned to work she struggled to stand or concentrate for long periods of time. Sara thought to herself…

“I cannot keep working like this but if I quit there is no way we will be able to keep the house or afford to buy the kids their Christmas presents this year. This accident will have run my family into the ground.”

Eventually, Sara decided she had to reduce her hours, despite the fact she needed the money to support her family and cover the ongoing expensive medical and car bills from the accident. She could no longer do the normal activities she did before the accident like the family’s washing or house cleaning, relying on her kids and husband to do this work for her. Joe suggested to Sara…

“We can’t keep living like this. We can barely make ends meet now you are out of work. I spoke to a mate at work and he said we should bring a claim against the driver in the accident to cover the cost of the medical bills and replace your income”.

Sara replied…

“Joe that all sounds well and good but I have heard these claims take years and years to settle. I don’t think I have the time or energy to do that”

Sara looked into it and stumbled upon MCW Legal’s ‘How long will my claim take?’ Worksheet.

MCW Legal is part of a national law firm that are specialists in income replacement law as well as tax, superannuation and property related issues. We help people like Sara in understanding the typical length of time their might take by giving them our new guide on how to calculate how long their claim might be. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the length of time a dispute takes replacing lost income including the severity of injuries and gathering expert opinions. There are also additional areas such as tax, property and other issues that may impact on your dispute. The first step we do is quickly determine the severity of Sara’s injuries and determine the typical time length based on that severity. This enabled Sara to make a decision about whether compensation is an appropriate choice to replace her income and superannuation for her family. Sara downloaded and filled out MCW Legal’s ‘How long your claim will take?’ Worksheet to calculate the typical length of her dispute for replacing her lost wages. A copy of this worksheet is available below. Sara found out her claim will take 24 months and realised that this was a far more managable time-frame than expected. Had Sara not done these calculations it is highly likely she would never have decided to replace her lost income. From sitting at work thinking… “How am I going to afford our mortgage, let alone the kid’s presents this year.” Sara found herself 3 months later sitting round the Christmas tree saying to Joe…

“The kids look so happy. Deciding to move forward with replacing our lost income and superannuation was a great decision.”