Injury Compensation Calculator

How personal injury compensation is worked out

The heads of damage

Compensation for a personal injury in Australia is built up from separate heads of damage. Which ones are open depends on the scheme, and each is assessed on its own evidence.

No-fault schemes such as workers compensation and CTP statutory benefits pay treatment and weekly payments without proving fault, but they do not pay non-economic loss. That head only exists in a damages claim where someone else was negligent, and every state caps or thresholds it.

Thresholds and caps that shape the range

• New South Wales. No damages for non-economic loss unless the severity is at least 15% of a most extreme case, and the amount is capped and scaled (Civil Liability Act 2002 s 16). A work injury damages claim needs at least 15% permanent impairment for a physical injury and 25% for a psychological injury, and recovers economic loss only (Workers Compensation Act 1987 s 151H). In a CTP claim, threshold injuries lose weekly payments after 52 weeks (Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 s 3.11).
• Victoria. Non-economic loss in a negligence claim needs a significant injury: more than 5% whole person impairment for most physical injuries, 5% or more for spinal injuries and 10% or more for psychiatric injury (Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria).
• Queensland. General damages are scored on an injury scale value from 0 to 100 and converted to a dollar figure under regulation (Civil Liability Act 2003).
• South Australia. In a CTP claim, future economic loss needs an injury scale value of 8 or more, and non-economic loss has its own threshold (CTP Insurance Regulator).
• Western Australia and South Australia work injuries. A common law claim against a WA employer needs at least 15% whole person impairment (WorkCover WA); in South Australia, 30% whole person impairment brings serious injury benefits (ReturnToWorkSA).

Fault also changes what is open. Contributory negligence reduces a damages award by a percentage, and some no-fault schemes reduce or stop benefits for the person most at fault. Time limits do not reduce a claim, but missing one can end it; the personal injury claims guide lists every state’s deadlines.

How the calculator builds the range: methodology note

The range is an idea, not a valuation. It is built from published scales so that every figure can be checked, and the mapping from your answers to those scales is an assumption that is stated here:

1. Pain and suffering or impairment lump sum. Your state and the type of incident pick a published scale: the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) s 16 table applied to the current $804,000 maximum; the NSW motor accident maximum of $691,000; the Queensland injury scale value table; the TAC impairment benefit table; the WorkCover Queensland permanent impairment scale; and the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic) maximum. The severity answer places you in a band on that scale: minor is ISV 1 to 5 or impairment up to 10%; moderate is ISV 6 to 15 or 11% to 20%; serious is ISV 16 to 40 or 21% to 50%; severe is ISV 41 to 100 or 51% to 100%. Where a scale gives only a maximum, the bands are proportions of it. States without a published scale of their own take the spread of the larger states.
2. Lost income. If you said you lost income, the time-off answer becomes a band of weeks (for example 3 to 12 months is 13 to 52 weeks), valued at $2,084 a week, the ABS full-time adult average for May 2026. Your own earnings will differ, and schemes pay a percentage of pre-injury earnings up to a cap.
3. Fault. A negligence claim needs someone else at fault, so no pain and suffering figure is shown where you said the accident was your fault; shared fault is shown reduced by a quarter as an example. A soft tissue injury in a NSW motor accident is a threshold injury and shows no damages figure.
4. Not included. Treatment, care and future economic loss are not in the range; the scheme or insurer usually pays treatment and care on top, and future loss depends on evidence about your working life.

The pathway part of the result works as follows:

1. Scheme and first deadline. The state or territory and the type of incident pick the scheme from the same sources register the guides use: the CTP or transport accident scheme for a road crash, workers compensation for a work injury, and a negligence claim under the court limitation period for a fall, a product, an assault on premises or medical treatment. Queensland adds its pre-court notice. Each deadline is shown with a link to the legislation or regulator page and the date it was checked.
2. Deadline status. The answer to “when did it happen” is compared with the months each deadline allows. Where the source says only “as soon as possible”, the status is shown as “lodge as soon as possible” rather than guessed.
3. Heads of claim. Treatment and income support are rated likely under a no-fault scheme, and otherwise follow the fault answer. Care and assistance follows the severity and recovery answers. Pain and suffering is rated only where someone else was at fault and the injury is more than minor, because every state thresholds it. A lump sum for impairment is shown as possible only where the scheme provides one.
4. Notes. Threshold injury rules, impairment thresholds, lifetime care schemes and late-claim rules are added where the answers make them relevant, each with its source.

The same function runs on our server for the screen and for the emailed copy, so the two always agree. Treat the result as a starting point for a conversation, never as advice or an assessment, and remember that using the calculator does not lodge a claim or pause a time limit.

What to do with the result

Treat the range as a starting point for a conversation. Check the first deadline against your own dates, read the guide for the pathway shown, then use the free claim check or call 1300 144 878. If a lawyer takes the matter on, any estimate they give you will rest on medical evidence, your earnings history and the rules of your state, which is why it can differ from the range here in either direction.