A personal injury claim in WA is a request for compensation when you are hurt because someone else did not take reasonable care. In Western Australia, personal injury claims follow different paths depending on how you were hurt. A car crash goes through the CTP scheme. A work injury goes through workers’ compensation. A fall in a shopping centre or a medical mistake is usually a negligence claim against the person or business responsible.
Each path has its own forms, deadlines and rules about who pays, so it helps to know early which one applies to you. This guide explains each path in plain English, what you can claim, and the time limits that apply in WA.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Every claim depends on its own facts.
Which Claim Path Applies to You?
Use this table to find the situation closest to yours.
| How you were hurt | Who you usually claim against | Main law |
|---|---|---|
| Car, motorbike, cyclist or pedestrian crash involving a WA-registered vehicle | Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA), not the driver | Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act 1943 |
| Injury at work | Your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer | Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 |
| Fall or injury on someone else’s property | The owner or occupier (usually their insurer) | Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) |
| Faulty product | The manufacturer, importer or supplier | Australian Consumer Law and negligence |
| Medical treatment that went wrong | The doctor, hospital or health service | Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) |
| A family member died because of negligence | The person or insurer responsible for the death | Fatal Accidents Act 1959 |
Some injuries fit more than one path. If you are hit by a car while driving for work, for example, you may have both a workers’ compensation claim and a CTP claim. People in this situation sometimes lodge only one of the two and miss out on the other.
How Personal Injury Claims Work in WA
Outside workers’ compensation, most personal injury claims in WA are based on negligence, and the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) sets many of the rules.
To succeed, you generally need to show four things:
- The other person or business had a duty to take reasonable care for your safety. A driver owes this to other road users, and a shop owes it to customers.
- They breached that duty. For example, a spill was left on the floor for an hour with no warning sign.
- Their failure caused your injury.
- You suffered loss, such as medical costs, lost wages or pain.
Workers’ compensation works differently. It is a no-fault scheme, so you do not need to prove your employer did anything wrong. You only need to show the injury happened out of, or in the course of, your work.
When Your Own Actions Reduce Your Claim
If you were partly responsible for what happened, your compensation can be reduced. This is called contributory negligence. Under section 5K of the Civil Liability Act, the court looks at what a reasonable person in your position would have done. Not wearing a seatbelt in a crash is a common example, as is walking while looking at your phone and missing an obvious hazard.
Alcohol also counts against you. Under section 5L, if you were intoxicated when you were hurt, the law presumes you were partly at fault, and it is up to you to prove the alcohol did not contribute to the injury. The presumption does not apply if someone else caused your intoxication, for example by spiking your drink.
Types of Personal Injury Claims in WA
1. Car Accident Injury Claims
If you are injured in a crash involving a WA-registered vehicle, you claim through compulsory third party (CTP) insurance, which is included in every WA vehicle registration. The Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA) manages all personal injury and fatal claims from motor vehicle crashes, so you claim against ICWA rather than the driver personally.
A few points to know:
- The law asks you to lodge your claim as soon as practicable after the crash. Delays make evidence harder to collect.
- You may still be able to claim after a hit-and-run if the driver cannot be identified. You must show you took reasonable steps to find out who caused the crash, such as reporting it to police and looking for witnesses or footage.
- People catastrophically injured in a crash on or after 1 July 2016 may get treatment, care and support for life under the Catastrophic Injuries Support scheme, whoever was at fault. The scheme covers spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, certain amputations, severe burns and permanent blindness.
For more on crash claims, see our page on car accident claims in Perth.
2. Workplace Injury Claims
WA’s workers’ compensation laws changed on 1 July 2024, when the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 started. Under the current process:
- See a doctor and get a certificate of capacity, which describes your injury and the work you can or cannot do.
- Complete the approved claim form.
- Give both to your employer. Your claim is made at that point, and you do not need to send a separate notice of injury.
- Your employer must send the claim to their insurer within 7 days. If they do not, you can give it directly to the insurer.
You generally have 12 months from the injury to make a workers’ compensation claim.
If someone other than your employer caused your work injury, such as another driver or a contractor on site, you may also have a separate negligence claim against them.
3. Public Liability and Slip and Fall Claims
These are claims against the owner or occupier of the place where you were hurt. Wet supermarket floors, broken steps, uneven footpaths and loose handrails are common causes.
These claims often turn on what the occupier knew, or should have known, about the hazard and how long it was there. Evidence disappears quickly, so if you can:
- Photograph the hazard and the area before it is cleaned up or fixed
- Ask for an incident report to be made on the day
- Take names and phone numbers of anyone who saw it
- Ask the business to keep any CCTV footage
4. Product Liability Claims
If a faulty product injures you, you may be able to claim against the manufacturer, importer or supplier under the Australian Consumer Law, in negligence, or both. The product could be a power tool, an appliance, furniture, machinery or a child’s toy.
Keep the product, and do not repair it or throw it away. These claims usually need expert evidence to show the defect and that it caused your injury.
5. Medical Negligence Claims
You may have a claim if a doctor, hospital or other health professional fell below the expected standard of care and this caused or worsened your injury. A missed diagnosis, a surgical error or a medication mistake are typical examples.
Section 5PB of the Civil Liability Act sets a special test for health professionals. Treatment is generally not negligent if it followed a practice widely accepted by peers as competent at the time, unless that practice was so unreasonable that no reasonable health professional would have followed it.
Section 5PB does not apply to warnings about risks. A doctor’s duty to tell you about the risks of a treatment before you agree to it is judged separately, so a claim can still exist where the procedure was done properly but you were never warned about a risk that then happened.
6. Food Poisoning Claims
If you become sick from contaminated food from a restaurant, café or supermarket, you may have a public liability or product liability claim. Keep receipts, packaging and medical records, and note who else ate the same food.
7. Claims After a Death (Dependency Claims)
If a family member dies because of someone else’s negligence, their dependants may be able to claim under the Fatal Accidents Act 1959. Dependants can include a spouse or de facto partner, children, parents and other relatives who relied on the person.
A dependency claim can cover the financial support the person would have provided and certain expenses, such as funeral costs. Grief itself is generally not compensated in a dependency claim, although a family member who develops a diagnosed psychiatric injury may have a separate claim.
8. Child Sexual Abuse Claims
WA has removed the time limit for civil claims about child sexual abuse, so survivors can bring a claim no matter how long ago the abuse happened. Many of these claims involve institutions such as schools, churches or care providers that failed to protect children. These cases are sensitive, and early, confidential legal advice helps.
What Compensation Can You Get From a Personal Injury Claim?
Compensation depends on how serious your injury is, how long it will last and how it affects your life and work. The main types are:
| Type of compensation | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Economic loss | Wages you have lost, and future earning capacity if you cannot work as before |
| Non-economic loss | Pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life |
| Medical costs | Hospital, doctor, physio, medication and rehabilitation costs, past and future |
| Care costs | Help at home or nursing care, including care given by family in some cases |
Contributory negligence (see above) can lower the final amount. So can the rules of the scheme you claim under: workers’ compensation, for example, pays benefits by set rules rather than assessing them the way a negligence claim is assessed.
Take a person who slips on an unmarked wet floor and breaks a wrist. They may claim for the hospital bills and physio, the weeks of work they missed, and the pain and limits on daily life. If they were running while looking at their phone, that amount may be reduced.
The Personal Injury Claim Process in WA, Step by Step
Most personal injury claims in WA follow a similar pattern:
- Get medical treatment straight away. Early medical records are some of the strongest evidence you will have, so tell the doctor exactly how the injury happened.
- Report the incident: a crash to police, a work injury to your employer, and a fall to the business where it happened.
- Collect evidence, including photos, witness details, receipts, pay slips and any messages or emails about the incident.
- Get legal advice before you sign anything. Do not accept an early payment or sign an insurer’s form until you understand what you could be giving up.
- Lodge the claim with the right body. That is ICWA for a car crash, your employer for a work injury, and a notice of claim to the person or business responsible for other negligence claims.
- Medical reports are gathered, and the insurer may ask you to see their own doctor. Many claims settle at this stage through negotiation.
- If the claim does not settle, it may go to court. The District Court of Western Australia has unlimited jurisdiction for personal injury damages, so it can hear claims of any size.
Time Limits for Personal Injury Claims in WA
If you miss a time limit, you may lose the right to compensation.
- Most personal injury claims: under the Limitation Act 2005 (WA), court action generally must start within 3 years of when you first became aware of the injury. For a crash, this is usually the date of the crash.
- Car crash claims with ICWA: the same 3-year limit applies. If your claim has not settled within 3 years, you may need to start court proceedings to protect it.
- Workers’ compensation: generally 12 months from the injury to make your claim.
- Claims after a death: generally 3 years from the date of death.
- Children: different time limits apply. A child injured under the age of 15 generally has 6 years, and a child injured at 15, 16 or 17 generally has until they turn 21.
- Child sexual abuse: no time limit.
Courts can sometimes allow a claim after the deadline, but this is never guaranteed, so get advice well before the deadline.
Common Mistakes That Weaken Personal Injury Claims
- Waiting weeks to see a doctor. A gap between the incident and the first medical visit gives insurers room to argue the injury came from something else.
- Lodging only one claim when you have two, such as claiming workers’ compensation for a work-related car crash but not lodging a CTP claim.
- Accepting the first offer before the full effect of the injury is known.
- Posting about the incident or your activities online, which insurers can check.
- Missing the 12-month workers’ compensation limit, which is much shorter than the general 3-year limit.
Personal Injury Claims FAQs
Do I Need a Lawyer to Make a Personal Injury Claim in WA?
No. You can lodge some claims yourself, such as a CTP claim with ICWA or a workers’ compensation claim through your employer. A lawyer becomes more useful when the injury is serious, fault is disputed, more than one scheme applies, or the insurer makes an offer you are unsure about.
Can I Claim If I Had Been Drinking When I Was Injured?
Possibly, but it will be harder. Under section 5L of the Civil Liability Act, the law presumes you were partly at fault, and your compensation can be reduced unless you prove the alcohol did not contribute to the injury in any way.
What If I Was Hurt in a Car Crash While Working?
You may have both a workers’ compensation claim and a CTP claim with ICWA. The two schemes interact, so get advice before you choose how to proceed.
I Was Injured as a Child. Is It Too Late to Claim Now?
Not always. Special time limits apply to people injured as children, and there is no time limit for child sexual abuse claims. Get advice on your specific dates.
Can a Family Member Claim for Grief If Someone Died?
Generally, grief alone is not compensated in a dependency claim under the Fatal Accidents Act. A family member who develops a diagnosed psychiatric injury may have a separate claim.
For more answers, read our Personal Injury FAQs.
Talk to Hoe Lawyers About Your Personal Injury Claim
If you have been hurt and are not sure which claim path applies, or whether a deadline is close, our team can talk you through your options and the next steps.
Book an Appointment or visit our Personal Injury Lawyers in Perth page.