When you suffer an injury arising as a result of a motor vehicle, work place or any other type of accident you have certain limitations and restrictions that are imposed upon you as to when you are able to issue proceedings.
There are of course specific limitations in reach of the relevant legislation including for motor vehicles the Motor Accident Insurance Act including the lodging a Notice of Claim within a strict period and the requirements for holding of a compulsory conference and the issue of proceedings and in the place of Work Cover the time period for lodging a claim with WorkCover, the period for lodging a Notice of Claim for damages and again time frames for holding a compulsory conference and the issue of proceedings. There are also limitations contained within the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act as to time frames for lodging notices of claim, compulsory conferences and issue of proceedings.
What if however you do not suffer the injury or there is no obvious sign of an injury until much later after the incident has occurred. In some instances five or ten years may pass before a symptom appears.
In this regard Section 11 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 provides that an action must be commenced within three (3) years from the date in which the cause of action arose. The exception to this provision is the injury relating to a dust related condition which is defined in the Civil Liability Act 2003.
There is a further provision in the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 Section 29 that should a person be under a disability the action may be brought before the expiration of six (6) years from the date in which the person ceased to be under the disability or died. Strict interpretations apply in respect of the meaning of the word disability. Further pursuant to Section 31 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 if a material fact of a decisive character relating to the right of action is not within the means or knowledge of the applicant until a date after the commencement of the year last preceding the expiration of the limitation period and there is evidence to establish the right of action apart from a defense founded on the expiration of the period of limitation. The Court may order a limitation be extended so that it expires of one (1) year after that date and thereby the application to the Court must be brought within the period of twelve (12) months.
The further limitation period as to dependency claims applies a limitation period of three (3) years from the date of death of the injured deceased. (See Hall –v- Don Faulkner Motors Pty Ltd and others (2013)(QSC331))
It is however critical to seek advice from an experienced compensation recovery Lawyer and in this regard Joseph O’Hare has been practicing in the area of personal injury recovery for over 20 years. If Joe can assist you in respect of any compensation or injury related matter please contact our office on 3266 8999 urgently.
Time is of critical importance in compensation recovery matters and accordingly an early telephone call is important. Our firm offers a NO WIN NO FEE policy and with a first telephone consultation free.