FAQs

We are Queensland’s first and only “no win no fee” personal injury law firm whose only mission is to help you save money on your personal injury legal fees. We help people in Queensland who have been injured in motor vehicle accidents or in the workplace by performing early and intermediate claim work for them. Then, when your claim is ready, we either help you find the right lawyers for you to resolve your personal injury claim, or attempt to resolve it ourselves.

We help you save money on your legal fees in three main ways:

1. We cap our professional legal fees at $2,000 (+GST) for early and intermediate stage claim work that other lawyers could charge up to $10,000 or more for (+GST). This is includes providing you with all the legal advice that you need, drafting complex documents, talking to insurance companies, and requesting and perusing important documents like medical records.
2. We give you helpful and detailed tips about proactively keeping your legal fees down.
3. In some cases we offer to try to resolve your matter at a much cheaper rate than other law firms offer.

Although the numbers change from claim to claim, total personal injury legal fees are usually around $20,000+ for a motor vehicle accident claim and $30,000+ for a WorkCover claim. For claims that take longer than 2 years, the fees can be $50,000+ or more.

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 $20,000 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 – $20,000, your savings may be the same as not using Claimwise. In these cases, we often offer to try and resolve your claim ourselves so that you can walk away with more in your hand.

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 $20,000 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 $20,000, your in-hand amount may be the same as not using Claimwise. In these cases, we often offer to try and resolve your claim ourselves so that you can walk away with more in your hand.

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

Need more information? – Due to the way that lawyers charge their fees and the 50/50 rule  there will be some claims where the legal fees associated with your claim will exceed the amount that we’ve saved you. This means that although your total legal fees (all the fees charged by lawyers in relation to your claim) have been reduced by up to $10,000 or more, your “in hand” amount could potentially 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 because lawyers are more likely to get all their fees back

Here’s an example –

Say your claim settles for $50,000 (let’s assume that refunds, disbursements and outlays are $0 – see question 14 for an explanation **hyperlink**). Your legal fees typically would have been $20,000, but you’ve used Claimwise and your total fees are now only $10,000. This means that lawyers charge $10,000 and get $40,000, meaning you’ve saved $10,000).

For some small claims, however, (i.e. a portion of 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 the 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 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 and your legal fees were $18,000, your lawyers would still only charge $5,000 due to the 50/50 rule. In this case, although we’ve saved you $10,000 on your total legal fees, your in-hand amount is $5,000 either way.

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 – so we understand how personal injury law works.

Check out the rest of our FAQs or our Get Wise blog  to see our knowledge of the ins and outs of our industry.

No! Our professional fees are capped at $2,000 (+GST) 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.

No! We provide comprehensive claim summaries to the lawyers that finalise your claim so that your claim won’t miss a beat.

Need more information? – there are two main reasons why there are no downsides to using Claimwise:

• When we send your claim to your next solicitors, we prepare a comprehensive and detailed claim summary which lets the lawyers know the who, what, when, where, how and why of your claim, as well all the next steps. We make sure we get your feedback on the summary to ensure that you’re happy with everything moving forward.
• Law firms usually have a lot of employee turnover. Personal injury lawyers are notorious for changing firms or changing to different areas of law. Because personal injury claims can run for 1 to 2 or more years, it’s quite common for injured people to have multiple lawyers running their claim anyway.

In a perfect world injured people would only ever have one lawyer running their claim. Unfortunately, personal injury law firms in Queensland are notorious for employee turnover, so claimants can often find themselves dealing with expensive legal fees as well as several different lawyers anyway.

We generally perform early and intermediate work on personal injury claims, but for some smaller (lower value) claims we are happy to try and resolve your claim to maximise your “in-hand” compensation.

Big personal injury law firms in Queensland can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing to get claims. Because of this, we are confident that we’ll be able to find the right lawyers to resolve your claim.

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 public liability matters (e.g. slips, trips and falls in public areas, injuries resulting from the negligent act of contractors).