At Alliance Compensation & Litigation Lawyers, we are often asked how long the process will take for a claim to settle. The answer, of course, depends.
For one woman in her fifties, she told us her story of being a disability carer for approximately 40 years until she sustained a lower back injury in 2019. It was not long until the organisation terminated her as she was unable to return to her pre-injury duties and suitable duties could not be provided for her. It was devastating as much as it was ironic that the organisation which was specially trained in accommodating to their clients’ disabilities turned its back on her.
As a result, we advised her of her entitlements to pursue a Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) claim to determine her eligibility to receive her insurance benefit, that is, whether as a result of her injury, she is unlikely to return to work ever again. She asked us how long it will take for the claim to settle and there was no clear answer for her. It depended on two things that was often outside our control – how co-operative the doctors are in completing the claim forms before it is submitted for an assessment; and how long the claims manager would take to complete the assessment of the claim. It was around six months at best for completion of the assessment alone. However, we knew with years of experience in this area, the assessment could be finalised earlier if we collected further evidence apart from completing the bare minimum requirements to be submitted for assessment. Essentially, we needed to ensure that all necessary information was presented to the claims manager in a proactive approach to show the claims manager assessing the claim, that there was only one clear decision and that was to approve the claim.
Toward that end, in addition to receiving mandatory claim forms provided by the superfund, we collated and submitted an overwhelming amount of medical supporting documentation evidencing her surgeries and various complications arising thereafter. We also submitted that as a result of the injury, she was required to use various equipment and received support from her family to assist her in all areas of personal care and daily living. The average turnaround of what could have been a six-month assessment or longer led to two weeks when we received confirmation from the superfund that the claim had been approved for almost $100,000.00 for her TPD insurance benefit. Despite the string of unfortunate events in her life, we were pleased to see that things were starting to move in a more favourable direction for a most deserving client.
If you have been injured for any reason for which you have not returned to work and you wish to seek legal services who will deliver quick and efficient results, please reach out to one of our TPD specialists at Alliance Compensation and Litigation Lawyers.
