FAQs

We are Queensland’s first and only “no win no fee” personal injury law firm whose mission is to help you save money on your personal injury legal fees.

Simple as that.

Glad you asked!

Unlike other personal injury law firms in Queensland, we help you save money in two main ways:

1. We do the work cheaper, and charge based on where your claim resolves.

   Our first tier of work caps our fees for running the first half of your personal injury claim at $2,000 (+GST) where other law firms would typically charge up to $10,000 or more.Then, depending on where we resolve your claim, our next tiers (informally negotiating a settlement to your matter, attending a compulsory settlement conference, or even running the matter to trial) continue our offer to run your claim significantly cheaper than traditional personal injury law firms.

2. There’s no ongoing bill Because we charge in tiers, you don’t have to worry about endlessly racking up expensive legal fees if you need extra advice or support along the way.

Although the numbers change from claim to claim, total personal injury legal fees are usually around $25,000+ for a motor vehicle accident claim and $35,000+ for a WorkCover claim. For claims that take longer than 2 years, the fees can be $50,000+ or more.

Yikes!

Need more information? – Personal injury legal fees are usually charged by “time billing”. This is where law firms use an hourly rate for certain tasks and then charge for time spent doing the work. Importantly, this work is often charged in indivisible 6-minute blocks or “units”.

For example, a solicitor that takes 1 minute to read an email from you about your injuries would charge a single 6 minute unit for the work (even if it only takes a minute or two). A common perusal rate for a senior lawyer is approximately $600.00 per hour + GST ($60.00 per unit + GST), so your lawyer reading your email can cost around $66.00 per unit.

Lastly, lawyers in Queensland are allowed to charge an “uplift fee”, which is 25% on their professional fees. Whilst a few law firms don’t charge an uplift fee, a lot do. As a result of this, reading your email could be charged at $82.50 per unit (including GST and uplift).

With most personal injury claims taking around 1 – 2 years to resolve, it’s not hard to see how lawyers can bill you tens of thousands of dollars for their work. 

The 50/50 Rule limits the amount that lawyers can ultimately bill you at the end of your claim. It stops lawyers from taking more than 50% of your compensation money (minus any statutory refunds, disbursements and outlays).

Need more information? – Here’s an example –

If your claim settles for $30,000 (and your statutory refunds and disbursements and outlays are $0) but your total legal fees are $30,000, then the 50/50 rule means that lawyers can only charge $15,000 for their work ($15,000 being 50% of $30,000). If your total fees are less than $15,000, then the 50/50 would not apply and your lawyers would charge you normally.

For claims worth $10,000 or more, we are very confident that we’ll be able to save you up to $10,000 or more on your legal fees.

For some small claims worth $5,000 – $10,000, your savings may be the same as not using Claimwise.

Either way, we’ll always have an open and honest conversation with you about your claim and the value of our service to you.

Need more information? – Due to how expensive legal fees can be, and the effect of the 50/50 rule (which forces lawyers to sometimes write off their legal fees to no more than about 50% of your compensation), there will be some claims where your total legal fees will be so high that, despite us performing the work cheaper, and providing you with tips about keeping your fees down, your “in hand” amount may be the same.

For medium and large-sized personal injury claims ($20,000+) it is highly likely that you will receive more “in-hand” when using us.

Here’s an example –

Say your claim settles for $50,000 (let’s assume that refunds, disbursements and outlays are $0 – see our FAQs for an explanation of this). Your total legal fees would have been $20,000, but you’ve used Claimwise and your total fees are now only $10,000. This means that your lawyers charge you $10,000 in fees, and you get $40,000 – you’ve saved $10,000.

For some small claims, however, (i.e. some claims only worth $5,000 – $20,000), the legal work performed by the lawyers that resolve your matter may mean that your savings with Claimwise are still less than what that law firm is writing off in professional fees due to the 50/50 rule.

Here’s an example –

Say your claim settles for $10,000 (let’s assume that refunds, disbursements and outlays are $0). Your total legal fees would have been $18,000, but you’ve used Claimwise and your total fees are now only $8,000. Although you’ve saved $10,000 on your total legal fees, your lawyers are still entitled to charge you $5,000 ($5,000 being 50% of the $10,000 settlement due to the 50/50 rule).

If you hadn’t used Claimwise, your total legal fees would have been $18,000, but your lawyers would still only bill you $5,000 due to the 50/50 rule. So although we’ve saved you $10,000 on your legal fees, your lawyers would still charge $5,000 either way. That’s why in these type of cases, we’ll usually offer to try and settle your claim so that you can maximise your in-hand amount. 

For claims worth $10,000 or more, we are confident that we’ll be able to get you more money “in hand” than if you didn’t use us.

For some claims worth less than $10,000, your in-hand amount may be the same as using any personal injury law firm because the value of your claim, even with our reduced prices, is simply too low.

Here’s an example –

Say your claim settles through informal negotiations for $5,000 (let’s assume that refunds, disbursements and outlays are $0). Our legal fees are $4,000 for that work. Although other law firms would typically charge $15,000 – $25,000 for the same work, your legal fees to either us or another firm would still be capped at $2,500 (being 50% of the $5,000 settlement due to the 50/50 rule).

Either way, we’ll always have an open and honest conversation with you about your claim and our ability to help.

There is a very small chance that every personal injury claim can end up in front of a judge, however, most of them are settled well before then.

Need more information? –

Although every personal injury claim has the potential of going to trial, the personal injury system provides numerous meaningful opportunities for your claim to settle – either through informal negotiations, compulsory settlement conferences or mediation.

Going to trial also carries significant financial risk for both parties. These potential consequences generally facilitate settlement of claims, meaning that very, very few claims end up going to trial.

As a general rule, claims that are more likely to go to trial are those where the parties cannot agree on “liability” – i.e. who is legally responsible for the accident. If the other party is adamant that they are not responsible, then any offers that they make in an attempt to resolve your claim may be too low to accept until more evidence is gathered or barristers/mediators have been involved.

We’ve been in and around the Queensland personal injury field for 5 years. Our team has experience in a range of personal injury firms in Queensland – both small and nationally-sized

We’ve also got over 4,400 followers on Tiktok (the largest personal injury tiktok page in QLD) and run a Reddit community to inform and support injured people.

So, yeah, we understand how personal injury law works.

No! Our professional fees are capped depending on where your matter resolves, and charged on a “no win, no fee” basis.

This means that our fees are only charged if your claim is successful, and only ever deducted from compensation paid by the relevant insurer at the end of the claim.

This way you’re never out of pocket.

It’s unlikely that you’ll get everything that you claim for. Insurance companies usually draw very different conclusions from the available medical evidence about your injuries. That’s why settlements often require both parties to compromise.

Need more information? – the two main reasons that it’s unlikely to get all the compensation that you want are:

• Variation in medical evidence – “Independent Medico-Legal Reports” are medical reports from specialists (Orthopaedic Surgeons, Psychiatrists, etc.) that discuss your “permanent impairment”. They are the basis on which the value of your claim can be determined. Although your lawyers might obtain a supportive report from a qualified medical specialist, the insurer is also entitled to obtain a report. Although the specialists engaged are independent, insurers tend to use specialists who are more optimistic about your recovery (i.e. less loss they have to pay for) whereas your lawyers generally use specialists who are less optimistic about your recovery (i.e. more loss that insurers have to pay for). This variation in medical opinions means that a compromise (settlement) based on both reports is usually the most common way to resolve claims.
• Legal fees – CTP insurers and WorkCover do not award compensation based on your anticipated legal fees, and they will only contribute to your legal costs in specific situations. Unfortunately, this means that your legal fees will generally be paid out of your compensation. This is why keeping your total legal fees as low as possible is very important.

These things deducted out of every compensation sum that injured people receive:

• Refunds– Centrelink, Medicare, WorkCover Queensland, and your private health fund need to be refunded for any services they’ve provided in relation to your injury.
• Disbursements and outlays– the money spent to get the evidence (medical records, medical reports) to support your claim. Barristers’ fees are included in here too.
• Professional legal fees – after refunds, disbursements and outlays have been paid, your legal fees are then taken out. These fees may be capped by the 50/50 rule .

Yes, you can. However, most self-representing clients usually receive around 7 – 8x less compensation because they aren’t familiar with the industry.

If you’re 100% sure that you want to run your own claim though, feel free to give us a call so that we can help point you in the right direction.

At this stage, Claimwise is just for people injured in motor vehicle accidents or in the workplace, however, in some circumstances, we are prepared to act in relation to some public liability matters (e.g. slips, trips and falls in public areas, injuries resulting from the negligent act of contractors).