Compulsory third party

CTP claims in Queensland.

How the compulsory third party scheme works, who can claim, the time limits that apply, and how damages are assessed under Queensland law.

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Reviewed by Blake Fraser, Principal Lawyer, Fraser Lawyers Last updated 12 June 2026

Every registered vehicle in Queensland carries a compulsory third party policy, whether the owner thinks about it or not. The premium is collected with the registration, and the cover travels with the vehicle.

Compulsory third party insurance, almost always shortened to CTP, covers one thing: personal injury caused by the driving of the insured vehicle. It does not cover damage to cars or property. That is what comprehensive and third party property insurance are for. CTP covers people, not panels.

That distinction catches people out. A driver may carry comprehensive insurance and assume it answers everything, but comprehensive and third party property policies deal with vehicles and property; they do not pay for a person’s injuries. The injury claim is a separate matter, made under the CTP scheme against the at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer, and it runs on its own rules and its own time limits.

The scheme is fault-based. A person injured because someone else drove negligently can claim against that at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer. A driver who was entirely at fault for the accident cannot claim under CTP for their own injuries, because there is no one else’s negligence to answer for them.

There is one significant exception to the fault rule. People who suffer catastrophic injuries, such as serious spinal or brain injuries, are covered on a no-fault basis by the National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland, regardless of who caused the accident. The two schemes sit side by side: CTP for fault-based claims, NIISQ for catastrophic no-fault treatment, care and support.

The Queensland CTP scheme is regulated by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). This guide explains how the scheme operates and what a person injured in a Queensland motor vehicle accident needs to understand about it.

Scope of work

What we help with

This guide covers the parts of a Queensland CTP claim that people most often ask about:

Matter: What it usually involves
What CTP covers: Personal injury from the at-fault vehicle, not vehicle or property damage
Who can claim: Passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and not-at-fault drivers
Identifying the insurer: Finding which CTP insurer covers the at-fault vehicle through MAIC
How a claim is made: The Notice of Accident Claim Form and the steps that follow
Time limits: The 9-month and 1-month notice cascade under section 37, and the 3-year court limit
The Nominal Defendant: Claims where the vehicle was unidentified or uninsured
Part-fault claims: How contributory negligence reduces, but need not defeat, a claim
How damages are assessed: Heads of damage and the Injury Scale Value for general damages
Claim timeline: The realistic stages of a claim, from notice to resolution
When a lawyer is involved: What the firm does and the conditions on which it acts

None of this requires a claimant to become fluent in the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). What is useful is knowing, early, which time limit is running, who the claim is against, and what the process is likely to involve.

The sections below take each of those in turn.

Process

What you need to know.

Because the scheme is fault-based, the question of who can claim turns on a second question: whose driving caused the injury. A person injured by the negligent driving of a motor vehicle can generally claim against that vehicle’s CTP insurer, whether or not they were in the vehicle at all.

The people who can ordinarily bring a CTP claim include:

Passengers injured in any vehicle involved in the accident, including a passenger in the at-fault vehicle.
Pedestrians struck by a vehicle.
Cyclists injured in a collision with a vehicle. The CTP claim runs against the at-fault vehicle, separately from any claim for the bicycle itself. The firm sets this out in more detail on its bicycle accident claims and cycling injury compensation pages.
Motorcyclists injured by another vehicle’s driving.
Other drivers who were not at fault, or not wholly at fault, for the collision.

The driver who was entirely at fault is the exception. CTP responds to a vehicle’s legal liability for injury to others, so a wholly at-fault driver has no CTP claim for their own injuries. If those injuries are catastrophic, the National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland may fund treatment, care and support regardless of fault.

Being partly at fault does not end a claim. Where the injured person contributed to the accident or to their own injury, for example by not wearing a seatbelt, the damages are reduced to reflect that share of responsibility. This is called contributory negligence: it discounts a claim rather than defeating it. MAIC sets out its own summary of who can make a claim.

If the motor vehicle accident happened in the course of work (for example while driving for your employer), a workers’ compensation claim may also arise under a separate scheme with its own steps and time limits: our guide to WorkCover claims in Queensland explains that process. For guidance specific to your circumstances, see our guides to passenger injury claims, pedestrian accident claims, and motorcycle accident claims in Queensland.

The process

How a CTP claim is made.

A CTP claim follows a defined sequence set by the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). The order matters, because some of the steps carry time limits and one of them, the formal notice, starts the claim.

Get medical attention and report the accident. Treatment comes first, and the medical records become the evidence of injury. The accident should be reported to police; the police report is often the simplest way to obtain the at-fault vehicle’s registration details.
Identify the at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer. The CTP insurer is tied to the vehicle’s registration, not to the driver. Once the registration number is known, MAIC’s CTP insurer lookup identifies which insurer covers that vehicle. As at 2026 there are three licenced CTP insurers in Queensland: Suncorp (AAI Limited), Allianz and QBE. (RACQ stopped issuing CTP policies on 1 October 2023 and is no longer a current insurer, though it still manages its earlier claims.) The current list is on MAIC’s licenced CTP insurers page.
Lodge the Notice of Accident Claim Form. This is the form that formally starts a CTP claim. It is given to the insurer (or, where the vehicle cannot be identified or is uninsured, to the Nominal Defendant) and is subject to the time limits in the next section. Where a law practice has been retained, the notice must be accompanied by a law practice certificate under section 37(1)(d) of the Act. MAIC explains the process of how to make a claim.
The insurer responds and investigates. The insurer must decide whether it admits or denies liability, and the claim moves into gathering medical and financial evidence about the effect of the injury.
The claim is quantified and a compulsory conference is held. Before court proceedings, the parties exchange material and attend a compulsory conference, a without-prejudice settlement meeting at which most claims resolve.
Resolution or court proceedings. If the claim settles, the matter ends with a settlement and release. If it does not, court proceedings may be commenced, subject to the 3-year limitation period.

This is the structure of almost every Queensland CTP claim. The detail that follows, on time limits, the Nominal Defendant, and how damages are assessed, sits inside this sequence. The firm sets out the wider sequence common to injury claims on its personal injury claims process page.

Time limits

The deadlines that apply to a CTP claim.

CTP claims have two kinds of deadline that are easy to confuse. The first is the deadline to give the insurer notice of the claim. The second is the deadline to start court proceedings. They run on different clocks, and missing the first does not necessarily mean the second has passed.

Notice of the claim. Under section 37 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld), the Notice of Accident Claim Form must be given by the earlier of two dates: nine months after the accident (or after the first appearance of symptoms, where the injury was not immediately apparent); or one month after the claimant first consults a lawyer about the possibility of making a claim. The two dates are read together and the earlier one governs, so consulting a lawyer can bring the deadline forward to one month.

If the notice is given late, the claim is not automatically lost. The obligation to give notice continues, but a reasonable excuse for the delay must be provided under section 37(3).

Unidentified or uninsured vehicles. Where the vehicle cannot be identified, for example in a hit-and-run, notice is given to the Nominal Defendant instead, and the primary notice period is three months. There is a hard limit here. If the vehicle cannot be identified and notice is not given to the Nominal Defendant within nine months of the accident, the claim against the Nominal Defendant is barred. That nine-month bar for unidentified vehicles is not saved by the reasonable-excuse provision.

Court proceedings. Separately from the notice deadline, court proceedings for damages must be started within three years of the date the cause of action arose, under section 11 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld). Different rules apply to children and people under a legal incapacity, whose time limits can run differently. MAIC publishes its own overview of CTP timeframes.

CTP time limits in Queensland (as at 2025-26)
Deadline	Period	Source
Notice of Accident Claim Form (known insurer)	Earlier of 9 months from the accident or first symptoms, or 1 month after first consulting a lawyer	Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld) s 37(2)(b)
Late notice	Still permitted, but a reasonable excuse for the delay must be given	Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld) s 37(3)
Notice to the Nominal Defendant (unidentified vehicle)	3 months as the primary period, with a hard 9-month bar that cannot be extended	Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld) s 37(2)(a), s 37(3)
Starting court proceedings	3 years from the date the cause of action arose	Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) s 11

The practical point is that the notice deadline is usually the one that arrives first, and it can arrive very quickly once a lawyer is consulted. A claim brought out of time may be barred, so the deadlines are worth identifying early.

Assessment

How compensation is assessed.

CTP damages are not a single number from a table. They are built up from separate categories, called heads of damage, each assessed on the evidence in the individual claim. The common heads are:

General damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenities of life.
Past and future economic loss, being lost earnings and lost earning capacity.
Past and future medical, rehabilitation and care costs.
Past and future superannuation on the economic loss.
Out-of-pocket expenses reasonably incurred because of the injury.

General damages are assessed differently from the rest. Queensland uses the Injury Scale Value, or ISV, a scale from 0 to 100. Each injury is given an ISV by reference to schedules of injuries, and that value converts to a dollar figure for general damages. The ISV rules sit in the Civil Liability Regulation 2025 (Qld), made under the Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld). More serious injuries attract a higher ISV and therefore higher general damages.

Because every head of damage depends on the specific injury, the medical evidence and the claimant’s circumstances, this guide does not state figures or ranges, and no responsible estimate can be given without the facts of the particular claim. MAIC sets out the categories at its overview of what you can claim.

The figures are not simply asserted. Each head of damage is supported by evidence: medical reports establish the injury and its long-term effect, and financial records establish past and future economic loss. The assessment of future loss is the part that most often turns on independent medical and economic opinion, because it asks what the injury will mean for the claimant’s working life and care needs over years to come, not just what has already happened.

How that assessment is tested matters as much as how it is built. Before any court proceeding, the scheme requires the parties to attend a compulsory conference, a without-prejudice meeting at which each side puts its assessment and the claim is negotiated. Most Queensland CTP claims resolve at or shortly after that conference, which is why the careful preparation of evidence beforehand does most of the work.

Timeline

How long the stages take.

CTP claims take time, and most of the time is spent waiting for the injury to stabilise so that its long-term effect can be assessed. A claim should not usually settle while the medical position is still changing, because the assessment of future loss depends on knowing where the injury has settled.

The durations below are general descriptions of how the stages tend to run. They are not promises, and individual claims vary widely depending on the injury, the insurer’s position on liability, and how quickly evidence can be gathered.

Indicative claim stages (descriptive only, individual claims vary)
Stage	What happens	Indicative duration
Notice and acceptance	Notice of Accident Claim Form lodged; insurer confirms a compliant claim and decides liability	Roughly the first few months
Treatment and stabilisation	Ongoing treatment until the injury reaches a stable and stationary point for assessment	Months to over a year, depending on the injury
Medical and financial evidence	Independent medical examinations and gathering of records of loss	Several months
Compulsory conference and settlement	Exchange of material and a without-prejudice settlement conference, where most claims resolve	Typically toward the later stages of the claim
Court proceedings (if needed)	Proceedings started within the 3-year limitation period if the claim does not settle	Adds further time where it occurs

The longer claims are usually the more serious ones, precisely because a serious injury takes longer to stabilise and is harder to assess. A claim that resolves quickly is not necessarily a better-managed claim; sometimes it simply reflects a less serious injury. MAIC describes the stages at its how to settle your claim overview.

Time limits

Deadlines and risks.

The single most common way a CTP claim is lost is through a missed deadline, and the deadline that catches people is the notice deadline, not the court one.

The notice period can be as short as one month. Under section 37 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld), consulting a lawyer about the possibility of a claim can bring the notice deadline forward to one month after that consultation, where that date falls before the nine-month date. A person who waits until close to nine months, then sees a lawyer, can find the deadline has effectively become much shorter.

For unidentified vehicles the position is harder still. The nine-month bar on Nominal Defendant claims for unidentified vehicles cannot be extended for a reasonable excuse, so a hit-and-run claim has a fixed outer limit.

The 3-year court limitation period under section 11 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) is separate again, and is the long stop for starting proceedings. Children and people under a legal incapacity are subject to different rules, and those situations should be assessed individually rather than assumed.

What we do

How Fraser Lawyers acts in these matters.

Fraser Lawyers acts for people injured in motor vehicle accidents on the Gold Coast and across Queensland, advising on their rights under the Queensland CTP scheme and the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). This page sits alongside our motor vehicle accident service and the firm’s wider personal injury practice.

The work is practical. It runs from identifying the correct CTP insurer and lodging the Notice of Accident Claim Form within time, through gathering medical and financial evidence, to the compulsory conference and, where a claim does not resolve, court proceedings. Blake Fraser, the firm’s Principal Lawyer, handles personal injury matters personally, with the support of the firm’s practice and accounts staff.

Conditional costs agreements, often described as no win, no fee, are available for eligible personal injury claims. They are a way of funding a claim, not a comment on its prospects. Conditions apply. You may be liable for disbursements regardless of outcome. The terms are set out in a written costs agreement before the firm is retained, and MAIC also publishes general information about legal advice for CTP claims.

Practical

Documents to bring.

Accident details Date, time, place, and how the accident happened
The other vehicle's registration Often available from the police report
Any police report or event number Including the attending officers or station, if known
Your own vehicle and licence details Registration and driver licence
Medical records and reports Treating doctor, hospital, and any imaging or scan records
Evidence of lost income Payslips, tax returns, or business records
Out-of-pocket expense receipts Medical, pharmacy, travel and care costs
Names of any witnesses And their contact details, if you have them
Any insurer correspondence Letters or claim numbers already received
Photographs Of the scene, the vehicles, or the injuries, where available

Pathway

The likely path.

Step 1: Initial advice and time-limit check.

The first task is to work out which time limit is running. The accident date, the date symptoms first appeared, and whether the vehicle is identified all bear on the notice deadline. The aim of the first meeting is a clear view of the deadlines, the likely insurer, and the next step.

Step 2: Identifying the insurer and lodging notice.

The at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer is identified through its registration, and the Notice of Accident Claim Form is prepared and lodged within time. Where the vehicle is unidentified or uninsured, notice is given to the Nominal Defendant instead.

Step 3: Liability and early treatment.

The insurer decides whether it admits liability. In the meantime, treatment continues and is documented, because the medical records are the foundation of the claim.

Step 4: Gathering evidence.

Medical evidence, including independent examinations, and financial evidence of loss are assembled once the injury has stabilised enough to assess its longer-term effect.

Step 5: Compulsory conference.

The parties exchange material and attend a compulsory conference, a without-prejudice settlement meeting. Most Queensland CTP claims resolve at or around this stage.

Step 6: Settlement or court.

If the claim resolves, it ends with a settlement and release. If it does not, court proceedings may be commenced within the 3-year limitation period, and the matter proceeds toward a hearing.

Frequently asked

Questions we hear often.

Plain-English answers to the questions clients tend to ask. If your question is not here, call us.

Get in touch

What is CTP insurance in Queensland?

Compulsory third party (CTP) insurance is the cover attached to a Queensland vehicle’s registration that pays for personal injury caused by the driving of that vehicle. It covers injury to people, not damage to vehicles or property. The scheme is regulated by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). Every registered vehicle in Queensland must have CTP cover, and the premium is collected with the registration.

Who can make a CTP claim in Queensland?

A person injured by the negligent driving of a motor vehicle can generally claim against that vehicle’s CTP insurer. That includes passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other drivers who were not at fault, or not wholly at fault. The scheme is fault-based, so a driver who was entirely at fault for the accident has no CTP claim for their own injuries. Being partly at fault reduces a claim through contributory negligence rather than ending it.

How do I find out which CTP insurer covers the at-fault vehicle?

The CTP insurer is tied to the vehicle’s registration, not to the driver, so the registration number is the key. Once you have it, often from the police report, MAIC’s CTP insurer lookup identifies which insurer covers that vehicle. As at 2026 the three licenced CTP insurers in Queensland are Suncorp (AAI Limited), Allianz and QBE.

What is the Notice of Accident Claim Form?

The Notice of Accident Claim Form is the document that formally starts a CTP claim. It is given to the at-fault vehicle’s CTP insurer, or to the Nominal Defendant where the vehicle is unidentified or uninsured. It is subject to the time limits in section 37 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). Where a law practice has been retained, the notice must be accompanied by a law practice certificate under section 37(1)(d).

What are the time limits for a CTP claim in Queensland?

There are two main deadlines. The Notice of Accident Claim Form must be given by the earlier of nine months from the accident or first symptoms, or one month after first consulting a lawyer, under section 37 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). Separately, court proceedings must be started within three years of the date the cause of action arose, under section 11 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld). Different rules apply to children and people under a legal incapacity.

What happens if the vehicle was unregistered or could not be identified?

Claims involving an unidentified or uninsured vehicle are made against the Nominal Defendant, a statutory body that stands in the place of the missing CTP insurer. For an unidentified vehicle, notice must be given to the Nominal Defendant within three months as the primary period, and there is a hard nine-month bar that cannot be extended for a reasonable excuse. MAIC explains the scheme at its Nominal Defendant page.

What happens if I was partly at fault for the accident?

Being partly at fault does not defeat a CTP claim. Where the injured person contributed to the accident or to the extent of their injury, for example by not wearing a seatbelt, the damages are reduced to reflect that share of responsibility. This is called contributory negligence, and it discounts a claim rather than ending it. The size of the reduction depends on the facts of the particular case.

How long does a CTP claim take to resolve?

It depends mainly on the injury. Most of the time in a claim is spent waiting for the injury to stabilise so its long-term effect can be assessed, because a claim should not usually settle while the medical position is still changing. Less serious injuries tend to resolve sooner; serious injuries take longer because they take longer to stabilise and are harder to assess. The timeline section above sets out the stages, which are descriptive rather than guaranteed.

Do I need a lawyer for a CTP claim?

A person can deal with a CTP insurer directly, and there is no requirement to have a lawyer. The value of advice is greatest where liability is in dispute, the injuries are significant, the time limits are close, or the vehicle was unidentified or uninsured. MAIC publishes general information about legal advice for CTP claimants. Whether legal help is worthwhile in a particular case depends on the facts of that case.

Does CTP cover the at-fault driver's own injuries?

Generally no. CTP responds to a vehicle’s legal liability for injury to other people, so a driver who was entirely at fault for the accident has no CTP claim for their own injuries. The main exception is for catastrophic injuries, which are covered on a no-fault basis by the National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland regardless of who caused the accident. That scheme funds treatment, care and support rather than paying common law damages.

What is the Nominal Defendant?

The Nominal Defendant is a statutory body that meets CTP claims where the at-fault vehicle was unidentified or was uninsured. It stands in the place of the CTP insurer that would otherwise have responded. Claims against the Nominal Defendant follow the same scheme as ordinary CTP claims, but with stricter notice rules, including the three-month primary notice period and the hard nine-month bar for unidentified-vehicle claims under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld).

What if I have already missed the nine-month deadline?

Missing the nine-month notice deadline does not automatically end a claim. Under section 37(3) of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld), notice can still be given out of time if a reasonable excuse for the delay is provided. The important exception is the nine-month bar on Nominal Defendant claims for unidentified vehicles, which cannot be extended. Where a deadline has passed, the position should be assessed promptly, because options narrow as more time goes by.

Personal injury claims in Queensland run to strict time limits. Some apply within months of the injury or accident, the limits differ by claim type, and a few, such as hit-and-run claims against the Nominal Defendant, cannot be extended.

Talk to Fraser Lawyers about your CTP matter.

A short outline of the accident and your injuries is usually enough to identify the time limits that apply and what the next step is. Fraser Lawyers is based at 86 Bundall Road, Bundall, and acts for clients across Queensland.

Call (07) 5554 6116 Send a short enquiry