Written by: Garbis Kolokossian There’s a conversation I have regularly with new clients, and it always follows the same pattern.
They’ll explain their injury, describe how it’s affected their life, and acknowledge that someone else was at fault. Then they’ll add, almost apologetically: “I’m not the type of person who normally makes claims” or “I don’t want to be greedy.”
This shame—this stigma around making a personal injury claim—is one of the most damaging misconceptions in this area of law. And it’s time we addressed it.
The misconception: Making a claim is somehow morally wrong
There’s a pervasive belief in our society that pursuing compensation for injury is greedy, opportunistic, or ethically questionable. People worry about being seen as ‘that person who sued over nothing’ or contributing to compensation culture.
This stigma is powerful enough that many legitimately injured people never make claims at all. They absorb financial losses themselves, struggle without the support they’re legally entitled to, and suffer in silence. But this misconception fundamentally misunderstands what personal injury claims actually are and what purpose they serve.
You're not suing someone, you're accessing insurance
Let me clarify what actually happens when you make a personal injury claim in Australia.
When clients tell me they don’t want to financially harm the person who injured them, I explain that in the vast majority of cases—car accidents, slips and falls on commercial property, workplace injuries—they’re making a claim against an insurance company, not an individual.
How compulsory third-party insurance works
Every registered vehicle in Australia must carry Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance. This insurance exists specifically to compensate people injured in motor vehicle accidents. The at-fault driver pays premiums for exactly this purpose: to provide protection if their negligent driving injures someone.
When you make a CTP claim, you’re accessing an insurance fund the driver has paid into, designed specifically for this situation. The driver’s premiums typically won’t increase because of your claim—CTP doesn’t work like property insurance.
The same principle applies to other scenarios:
- Slip and fall in a business: You’re claiming against their public liability insurance.
- Workplace injury: You’re claiming through workers’ compensation insurance.
- Injury on private property: You’re claiming against their home and contents liability coverage.
These insurance systems exist because society recognises that accidents happen and there needs to be a mechanism for injured parties to recover losses without financially destroying the responsible party.
You’re not attacking an individual. You’re using an insurance system exactly as it was designed.
The trampoline effect: Claims as social support
One way to understand the social value of personal injury compensation is through what I call the “trampoline effect.”
When you’re injured through someone else’s negligence, you fall. You’re knocked out of your normal life: unable to work, participate in activities, or contribute to your community the way you did before.
Without proper compensation, many injured people never fully recover from that fall. They struggle financially, can’t afford proper treatment, and remain stuck in a cycle of pain and limited function.
But, appropriate compensation acts like a trampoline. It catches you and helps spring you back up. It enables you to access treatment, retrain if necessary, and return to being an active, contributing member of society.
What this looks like in practice
Consider someone injured in a car accident who can no longer perform their trade.
Compensation can enable them to:
- Access specialised treatment and rehabilitation
- Retrain for a different work that accommodates their limitations
- Receive psychological support for mental health impacts
- Maintain financial stability during the transition.
Without compensation, this person might face unemployment, potential homelessness, and long-term reliance on government support. With compensation, they can return to productive work in a different capacity.
The claim doesn’t make them a ‘taker,’ it provides resources to remain a contributor.
Or consider a young person injured in a slip and fall accident at a shopping centre whose university studies are interrupted, much like our client Nick. Appropriate compensation can fund completion of their degree, pay for ongoing treatment, and enable them to enter their chosen career.
This is what good personal injury compensation does. It restores people to the position they would have been in if the injury hadn’t occurred, or as close to it as money can achieve.
How the insurance industry has changed
The stigma around personal injury claims didn’t appear out of nowhere. For decades, public attitudes have been shaped by how the insurance industry—and governments—have talked about compensation. What was once seen as a fair right to support and recovery has gradually been reframed as opportunism or greed.
To understand why this perception is not only unfair but harmful, we need to look at how the insurance industry itself has evolved.
The shift in balance
The insurance industry today operates very differently than it did decades ago. While insurance companies have always been businesses focused on profit, there’s been a significant shift in how they balance corporate returns against their community purpose.
- Premiums have increased substantially. Australians are paying more for CTP insurance than in previous decades, with significant increases across most states.
For example, data from the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (NSW) shows that CTP premiums in NSW fell from around 37% of average weekly earnings in 2017 to around 23% of average weekly earnings by 30 June 2025, indicating changing affordability patterns in some states while nominal costs remain high. Across all general insurance categories, insurers charged $16.8 billion in premiums in Australia from September 2023 to September 2024, with an average motor insurance premium of around $929 per policy, substantially higher than decade-ago figures when adjusted for inflation. Independent analysis from unions and government data shows overall insurance premiums—including CTP and other policies—have risen about 36 % since March 2021, outpacing general inflation. |
- Claim payouts have become more contested. Insurance companies have become increasingly aggressive in denying claims, minimising injuries, and forcing injured people into protracted disputes.
Recent regulatory action supports this trend. In 2024, the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) issued a civil penalty against Insurance Australia Limited (NRMA Insurance) after an investigation revealed systemic non-disclosure and misapplication of demerit-point loadings on CTP policies dating back to 2018. More than 48,000 policyholders were not informed about the loading, and over 21,000 policies had it incorrectly applied. Errors that directly affected premium calculations and breached obligations under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017. This type of conduct illustrates how regulatory bodies increasingly uncover practices that disadvantage consumers and complicate the claims environment. |
- Corporate profits have grown. Major insurance companies report strong profits to shareholders while injured Australians face greater barriers to fair compensation.
According to industry reporting and market commentary, Australian general insurers posted $6.1 billion in profit in 2024, well above their five-year historical average of around $2 billion. In the major insurers’ recent financial results, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) reported profits of about $1.42 billion (up 79 %) and Suncorp’s insurance arm reported $801 million in profit (up 17 %), largely driven by premium increases rather than claims outcomes. |
This isn’t to say that insurers shouldn’t investigate claims or that fraud never occurs. But the balance has shifted too far, away from fairness and toward corporate protectionism.
Statutory changes that limit compensation
Governments have reinforced this imbalance through legislative reforms that restrict what injured people can claim.
These include:
- Caps on pain and suffering damages
- Complex qualification thresholds
- Narrow definitions that exclude many legitimate claims
- Strict time limits that can bar claims entirely.
Legal precedent
One historic example is the Civil Liability Act 2002 in New South Wales, which introduced a 15 % threshold for non-economic loss (pain and suffering), meaning no damages are payable unless the injury reaches that severity.
Similar tort-law reforms across states (following the Ipp Review and subsequent legislation) tightened caps, thresholds and conditions on personal injury damages, altering how claims are valued and limiting access to common law compensation.
These changes were often sold to the public as a way to curb “compensation culture” and reduce premiums. But premiums haven’t fallen, they’ve continued to rise. The real savings have gone to corporate profits, not consumers.
National premium data reinforces this. Industry figures show that insurers collected approximately $16.8 billion in motor-related premiums in 2023–24, a substantial increase compared with a decade earlier even after adjusting for market growth. Average motor insurance premiums—CTP included—have risen steadily across most states, and insurers’ premium revenue continues to outpace the rate of claims paid. In other words, despite successive waves of legislative reform aimed at reducing scheme costs, the financial benefit has not flowed through to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
Meanwhile, genuinely injured people face more barriers than ever to receiving fair, reasonable compensation.
Why your claim benefits everyone, not just you
When you make a legitimate personal injury claim, you’re contributing to broader social good in several important ways:
1. You're creating accountability
When a business faces liability because they failed to maintain safe premises, they’re incentivised to improve safety practices. When an employer’s workers’ compensation premiums increase due to workplace injuries, they have financial motivation to implement better safety protocols.
Claims create accountability. Without consequences for negligent behaviour, dangerous practices continue unchecked.
2. You're balancing power
Insurance companies have teams of lawyers, investigators, and adjusters working to minimise payouts. They have vast resources and decades of experience.
You have your injury, your medical bills, and your disrupted life.
When you engage a lawyer to advocate for you, you’re balancing this inherently unequal power dynamic. This isn’t gaming the system, it’s ensuring the system works fairly.
3. You're establishing fair standards
Successfully resolved claims help establish compensation standards that benefit future injured people. When insurance companies know they can’t low-ball legitimate claims without challenge, it improves outcomes for everyone.
Conversely, when injured people don’t claim because of stigma, insurance companies face no pressure to offer fair compensation to those who do.
4. You're exercising your rights
Personal injury law exists because society decided that people injured through negligence deserve compensation. These rights were developed through decades of legal evolution.
When you exercise your legal rights, you’re participating in a system that protects all of us. If you were injured tomorrow through someone else’s negligence, you’d want the ability to make a claim. Why should you feel ashamed for doing so today?
So, what about ‘compensation culture’?
You’ve probably heard warnings about ‘compensation culture,’ the idea that society has become litigious, with everyone suing over minor injuries and frivolous claims clogging the courts.
Here’s the reality: genuine compensation culture—where people routinely make fraudulent or exaggerated claims—is far less common than insurance industry rhetoric suggests.
The Australian legal system has multiple safeguards:
- Lawyers have ethical obligations not to pursue claims without merit
- Courts can dismiss baseless cases and award costs against parties who bring them
- Insurance companies thoroughly investigate claims and reject those without sufficient evidence.
Yes, some people make illegitimate claims. But they’re the vast minority.
Most people I meet are hesitant to claim at all, worried about perception, and uncertain whether their legitimate injury is “serious enough.”
The insurance industry benefits when you internalise this stigma because it discourages legitimate claims. Every injured person who doesn’t claim due to shame is compensation the company doesn’t pay, and profit they keep.
Don’t let fear of judgment prevent you from accessing rights you’re legally entitled to.
Understanding what claims actually are
Let’s reframe the narrative
A personal injury claim is:
- Not charity. You’re not asking for a handout. You’re seeking restoration of actual losses—medical expenses, lost income, reduced quality of life—caused by someone else’s negligence.
- Not revenge. You’re not punishing anyone. You’re holding an insurance system accountable and ensuring negligent behaviour has appropriate consequences.
- Not greed. You’re not trying to profit from your injury. You’re trying to be made whole, to the extent that money can achieve that.
- Not frivolous. If your injury has caused genuine loss—financial, physical, or psychological—your claim is legitimate, regardless of how “minor” it might seem to others.
What makes a claim legitimate?
Since we’re dispelling misconceptions, let me be clear about what constitutes a legitimate claim:
- Someone else was at fault. Their negligence, carelessness, or failure to meet required standards caused your injury.
- You suffered actual harm. You have medical evidence of injury, documented treatment, and demonstrable impact on your life.
- You’ve incurred losses. Medical expenses, lost income or reduced capacity. These are tangible consequences of the injury.
If these elements exist, your claim is legitimate. Full stop.
It doesn’t matter if the injury seems “minor” to others, or if you’re worried about perception. These are the legal standards, and they exist to protect you.
Moving forward without shame
If you’ve been injured through someone else’s negligence, here’s what I want you to understand:
- You deserve compensation. Not because you’re opportunistic, but because fairness requires that people who cause harm through negligence should remedy that harm.
- You’re not alone. Thousands of Australians make legitimate personal injury claims every year. Most settle fairly without litigation, and lives are restored.
- You don’t need to apologise. Don’t preface your claim with “I feel bad about this.” You have nothing to apologise for.
Your claim serves a broader purpose. It creates accountability, balances power, and maintains standards that protect everyone.
At GMP Law, we’ve seen too many people suffer unnecessarily because of misplaced stigma. People who sacrifice their financial security and health recovery because they’ve internalised the message that making a claim is somehow wrong.
It’s not wrong. It’s your right.
And exercising that right isn’t just about you. It’s about maintaining a fair, accountable society where negligence has consequences and injured people receive the support they need to recover.
Let’s move past the shame and toward a more honest understanding of what personal injury claims really are: a mechanism for justice, accountability, and restoration.
You deserve nothing less.
