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Motor Vehicle Accidents – NSW

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The Costs section in the By Lawyers Motor Vehicle Accidents From 1 December 2017  guide has been reviewed and enhanced.

The By Lawyers NSW Motor Vehicle Accident publication contains two separate guides – one for motor vehicle accidents which occurred before 1 December 2017, another for motor vehicle accidents which occurred from that date. This reflects the two separate statutory schemes which apply.

The Costs section of the matter plan and commentary has been re-organised with new sub-headings for improved searchability and additional content. Enhancements include:

  • Restrictions on costs generally clarified and emphasised, given their significance to practitioners for claims under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017;
  • Costs in statutory benefits claims – maximum allowances for work relating to each of the three types of disputes in statutory benefits claims – merit, medical and miscellaneous;
  • Costs in common law claims – the allowable costs for common law claims divided into stages of the matter now listed in the commentary;
  • Contracting out of the maximum costs provisions, with commentary on the restrictions that apply;
  • Addition of the recent case AAI Limited trading as GIO v Moon [2020] NSWSC 714 on the ability of the Dispute Resolution Service to award costs above the maximum in certain cases;
  • Payment – how a practitioner submits a tax invoice to the insurer; and
  • Costs disclosure to SIRA – lawyers representing claimants are required to provide SIRA with a breakdown of the costs charged to the client at the end of the matter.

This review is part of By Lawyers continuing commitment to enhancing our content and helping our subscribers enjoy practice more.

Motor Accident claims disputes – NSW

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The NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) has launched its new digital portal for motor accident claims disputes. The new platform allows online lodgement, gives all parties to a dispute access to real-time status updates, and is designed to enhance communication and efficiency.

Motor accidents in NSW which occurred after 1 December 2017 are covered by the Motor Accidents Injuries Act 2017 (MAIA). Under the MAIA disputes scheme there is a SIRA Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) established by sections 7.2 and 7.3 to consider and determine a wide range of disputes as set out in Schedule 2 of the MAIA.

The types of disputes fall into three broad categories:

  • Merit Review;
  • Medical Assessment issues;
  • Claims Assessment matters;
  • Miscellaneous disputes.

Essentially, the DRS is the ‘one-stop shop’ for disputes under the scheme.

Application for resolution of motor accident claims disputes can now be lodged online via the SIRA DRS portal.

The portal can also be used to check the progress of applications, receive notification of the outcome of the dispute and to lodge any review if required.

To use the portal practitioners need to register an account with Service NSW and link the account with SIRA.

The By Lawyers Motor Vehicle Accidents (NSW) – Accidents from 1 December 2017 guide has been updated accordingly.

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