Choosing a Personal Injury Lawyer to Manage Your Compensation Claim

Suffering a personal injury can be a distressing and life-altering experience. Whether your injury is a result of a car accident, medical negligence, workplace incident, or any other circumstance, it is often necessary to pursue a compensation claim to safeguard your future.

In Australia, navigating the legal complexities of personal injury claims can be challenging without proper guidance. This is where a skilled and experienced personal injury lawyer is invaluable. Choosing the right lawyer to manage your compensation claim is a critical decision that can greatly impact the outcome of your case.

Role of the Personal Injury Lawyer

A personal injury lawyer specialises in handling cases where individuals have suffered physical, emotional, or financial harm due to the negligence or wrongful actions of another party. Their expertise extends to evaluating the prospects of succeeding with a claim, gathering evidence, negotiating with respondents, and representing clients in court if necessary.

The first step of your compensation claim is an initial consultation with a lawyer. During this initial consultation, you will need to provide details about your injury and the relevant circumstances. The lawyer will evaluate the merits of your case and discuss potential strategies.

If you decide to proceed with the claim, the next step will be for your lawyer to gather evidence, including medical records, accident reports, witness statements, and any other relevant documentation. The aim of this phase is to ensure that there is adequate evidence to support your claim. Your lawyer will calculate what is a fair amount that compensates you adequately for your injuries. Your lawyer will also be aware of any statutory limitations that apply and can ensure that you initiate proceedings before you run out of time.

When possible, your lawyer will engage in negotiations with the respondent, which usually involves discussions with their insurance company. If negotiations fail to yield a satisfactory outcome, your lawyer may initiate legal proceedings in a relevant court or tribunal. This step is usually taken when a court trial is necessary to achieve a just resolution.

Fortunately, most personal injury cases are settled before going to trial. When a trial is necessary, your lawyer will represent you in court, presenting evidence and arguments to support your claim. If successful, you could receive compensation for medical expenses and lost wages, future medical expenses and costs, loss of future earnings, and the pain and suffering you have endured.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Personal Injury Lawyer

Choosing the right personal injury lawyer is a decision that can significantly influence the outcome of your compensation claim. Remember that seeking the right legal help is an essential step toward achieving justice and rebuilding your life after a personal injury. Here are seven important factors to consider:

Reputation

You should do your homework before retaining a personal injury lawyer. You can research a lawyer’s reputation within the legal community and among previous clients. Online reviews and testimonials can provide valuable insights into a lawyer’s professionalism, communication skills, and success rate.

Experience

You should look for a lawyer with a significant track record in handling personal injury cases. An experienced lawyer will have a deep understanding of the intricacies involved, ensuring they can effectively navigate the legal process and anticipate potential challenges. While many personal injury cases are settled out of court, it is beneficial to choose a lawyer who is comfortable and experienced in the courtroom. This ensures they can advocate effectively on your behalf, even if the case goes to trial.

Expertise

Personal injury law is diverse. It encompasses areas such as motor vehicle accidents, workplace injuries, medical negligence, public liability, and more. You may benefit from selecting a lawyer who specialises in the specific circumstances surrounding the injury you have sustained, as their expertise will be tailored to the nuances of that particular area of law.

Communication

Effective communication is crucial in any legal matter. Most personal injury lawyers offer a free initial consultation, so you should use this opportunity to gauge whether you feel comfortable working with them. Your lawyer should be attentive, responsive, and able to explain complex legal terms in a way that you can understand. A lawyer who keeps you informed at every stage of the process can provide peace of mind during a challenging time. It is also important to remember that you are likely to be in a vulnerable state after your injury, and you will benefit from having someone on your side who will persevere and make you feel heard and supported.

Resources and Support

Personal injury cases often require a team effort. Ensure that the lawyer you choose has access to the necessary resources, such as investigators, medical experts, and other professionals who can strengthen your case.

Fee Structure

You need to discuss the lawyer’s fee structure during your initial consultation. Many personal injury lawyers work on a “no win, no fee” basis, meaning they only get paid if you win your case. Be clear about any potential fees or expenses that might arise during the process.

Trust Your Instincts

Ultimately, the best advice when it comes to choosing a personal injury lawyer is to trust your gut feeling. Your lawyer will serve as your advocate during a challenging time, making it important to select someone in whom you have confidence and with whom you feel comfortable.

This is general information, and you should obtain professional advice relevant to your circumstances. If you or someone you know wants more information or needs help or advice, please contact us on (08) 8155 5322 or email [email protected].

Key considerations for controlling business debtors

While growing your business it can become easy to lose sight of effectively managing your debtors, however doing so, can help your business continue to grow successfully.

The information below can help make the task of controlling business debtors much easier!

As always, we recommend you seek legal advice if you have any concerns.

Have terms of trade in place before extending credit and know who is behind the business

Make sure you put all terms of trade in writing, always! It’s surprising how many businesses still supply goods and services by informal arrangements. Having terms of trade in writing is an effective way of minimising and preventing bad debts arising.

Another important factor is to complete thorough credit history and business reference checks before offering credit to new potential customers. Be upfront of your terms of trade and credit limits and put these in writing. Ensure the new customer signs acceptance of your terms of trade.

If you are unsure as to whether your terms of trade are exhaustive, we recommend you seek legal advice from one of our experienced lawyers.

Know who owes the money – do an ASIC search

It is vital to perform background checks on potential customers before commencing a business relationship with them.

The only way to know whether a business you want to deal with is in administration, liquidation or deregistered is on ASIC Registers. This is an easy and quick way for weeding out any customers that do not have the ability to pay you.

Know the rules about serving letters of demand / statutory demands – time limits, thresholds, and service requirements

We strongly recommend you have a letter of demand template your business can use should the need arise. A letter of demand should include:

• accurate information;
• a clear intention to commence legal proceedings if you are not paid by a specified time;
• attached copies of any relevant supporting documentation.

The letter of demand should be signed and a copy should be kept for your records. We recommend you speak to one of our lawyers who can draft a letter of demand template customised to your business.

You should also be familiar with Section 459E of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This section deals with statutory demands. A statutory demand is a written request for payment of debts owed by an insolvent company. The debt owed must be over $2000.

A statutory demand requires a debtor to do one of the following:

• pay the debt they owe you;
• secure or compound for the debt; or
• make an application to set aside the statutory demand.

The statutory demand must be drafted in its prescribed form.

The debtor company has strictly 21 days to comply with the statutory demand, otherwise a legal presumption will be raised that the company is insolvent. Once this occurs, you can apply to the Federal or Supreme Court for an order that the debtor company be wound up in insolvency.

You must also satisfy the service requirements of a statutory demand which may be done by leaving the statutory demand or posting to the company’s registered office. You can also deliver a copy of the statutory demand personally to a company director. It is critical that service of the statutory demand is done correctly, and service is evidenced in an Affidavit of Service. 

It is obvious from the above that procedures involved in making a statutory demand can be complex. We strongly recommend you seek legal advice to prevent your statutory demand from being set aside.

Educate your credit control team

It is vital that all staff in the credit control team are on the same page when it comes to your business’s credit control policy and procedures. We recommend you have regular meetings to go through credit control policies and what changes need to be made, if any.

It is important to ensure that all staff understand the terms of trade. Taking some time out to ensure all staff clearly understand the terms of trade can prevent unnecessary debt chasing down the track.

We also recommend you hire an expert in credit control to provide training to staff in how to become a better credit controller or outsource your debt control to a debt collection expert.

Keep notes of phone calls, etc. when chasing money

If you find yourself chasing money from a debtor, it is critical to keep a record of phone calls, emails, letters of demand and other documentation supporting your claim. It will also make it easier to keep track of your dispute.

Conclusion

The key to controlling business debtors is prevention! Having clearly written terms of trade and knowing who your debtor is and their history of paying debt, minimises the risk of you having to chase them for money in the future.

Training and educating your credit control staff is also vital to ensure they are on board with the business’s trading procedures and policies and are effective in carrying out these procedures and policies.

Even if you believe you have your business covered with effective debtor control practices, we still recommend you seek advice from an experienced lawyer to give you peace of mind.

This is general information, and you should obtain professional advice relevant to your circumstances. If you or someone you know wants more information or needs help or advice, please contact us on (08) 8155 5322 or email [email protected].

Can I Stop Somebody from Contacting or Seeing my Child?

In the complex landscape of family law, few issues are as emotionally charged as the care of children. It is common for parents to question what they are legally obliged to do and their decision-making rights about their children. For instance, parents often struggle with knowing whether they can stop someone from contacting or seeing their child. Sometimes this is about contact with the other parent, but at other times the contact is with another significant person, such as a grandparent. Unfortunately, in neither case does the law provide clear-cut guidance, although there are principles that can help to determine these issues.

Contact with the Other Parent

In Australia, the law concerning the care of children is generally governed by the Family Law Act 1975 and exercised by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (or, in Western Australia, the Family Court of Western Australia). Family law prioritises the best interests of the child above all else.

Historically, when the care of a child has become a decision for the Court, it has favoured arrangements that allow for ongoing contact with both parents, even in cases of parental conflict or estrangement. This is not because parents have ‘rights’ regarding their children, but rather because there  was a presumption that both parents had ‘equal shared parental responsibilities’ towards their children. Therefore, if both parents have equal decision-making power about their child, it was presumed by the Court that neither parent should prevent contact between the child and the other parent.

However, this presumption was always rebuttable. There were circumstances in which the Court would limit or restrict contact between a parent and their child to ensure the child’s safety and well-being. These circumstances typically involved abuse, neglect, substance abuse, domestic violence, or other factors that posed a risk to the child’s physical or emotional health. Accordingly, outside of the courtroom parents were empowered to limit or restrict contact with the other parent if it endangered their child’s safety or well-being.

If the other parent believed that this power was being used inappropriately or punitively, they could seek legal intervention to establish contact. In such cases, the Court would carefully consider the evidence presented and make a decision based on the best interests of the child.

More recently, the Court is being guided by legislative changes to acknowledge, from the outset, that a child may not benefit from spending significant time with a parent and the presumption of shared parental responsibility has been removed. The Court will now consider an amended set of factors when making decisions about parental contact.

These factors include what arrangements promote the safety of the child and each person who has care of the child, the views expressed by the child, the developmental, psychological, emotional and cultural needs of the child, and the capacity of each parent to meet those needs. In addition, the Court will consider the benefits to the child of having a relationship with their parents and other people who are significant to them and anything else that is relevant to the particular circumstances of the child.

Despite this changed emphasis and provided the best interests of the child are at the forefront, it is likely to remain uncommon for the Court to order that a child has no contact with one of their parents. There is a significant body of research that shows that in most circumstances it is in the best interests of children to have a relationship with both parents. As such, parents outside the courtroom should consider withholding a child’s contact with the other parent to be a course of last resort and only taken when it is necessary in the interests of the child. Parents should also be mindful that withholding a child from contact with another parent without valid justification can have serious consequences. The Court takes a dim view of parents who engage in ‘parental alienation’, which involves manipulating or coercing a child to reject the other parent.

Other Significant People

Ultimately, the goal of Australian family law is to promote the well-being of children. Within this broader mission, the Court not only considers contact between the child and their parents but also contact with other people who are significant to the child. For instance, if a child has developed a relationship with a grandparent, perhaps through regular visits, it may not be in their interests to have this relationship severed. Again, this is not because of any concept of ‘grandparent’s rights’, which is not a recognised legal principle in Australia. Rather, it is because the Court recognises that when someone is important to a child, it can be harmful for them to lose this person and that this should only happen if it is unavoidable. For instance, if a grandparent is abusive or alienating, then it would be reasonable to prevent them from having contact with the child, even if this goes against the child’s expressed wishes. However, it would not be sufficient for a parent to withhold access to their child simply because they wish to do so, or to punish the grandparent, in circumstances where the child has a positive and longstanding relationship with their grandparent.

Conclusion

At all times a parent must consider the best interests of their child when determining who can and cannot have contact with their child. As long as it is the child’s interests that are being prioritised, the parent may decide to prevent contact. If the other person has the necessary standing, they may challenge this decision before the Court, at which time consideration will be given to what is in the overall best interests of the child. This consideration will include the impact on the child if their parent is forced into contact which is not healthy, such as with a parent with whom they have a negative relationship.

This is general information, and you should obtain professional advice relevant to your circumstances. If you or someone you know wants more information or needs help or advice, please contact us on (08) 8155 5322 or email [email protected].