Dependency claims in Queensland: who can claim after a fatal accident

When a person is killed in an accident, Queensland law may give the people who depended on them a claim of their own. It is not the claim the person who died would have had, and it is not the estate’s claim. It is a separate action, created by statute and usually called a dependency claim, for the financial loss the death causes to a defined group of family members. It is not automatic, because it depends on the death having been caused by someone’s wrongful act or omission.

That action sits in Part 10 of the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 (Qld), headed “Wrongful death proceedings”. Section 64 provides that where a death is caused by a wrongful act or omission which would have entitled the deceased to recover damages for personal injury had they survived, the person who would have been liable remains liable despite the death, and the court may award the deceased’s family members damages “proportional to the damage to them resulting from the death”.

Two claims arise from one death

The first is the dependency claim under Part 10. It belongs to the family members and compensates their loss, not the deceased’s.

The second is the deceased’s own cause of action, which survives for the benefit of the estate under section 66 of the Succession Act 1981 (Qld). That surviving action is cut back sharply: the damages cannot include pain and suffering, bodily or mental harm, curtailment of expectation of life or exemplary damages, and where the death was caused by the same act or omission they are calculated without reference to the deceased’s future probable earnings. One thing is expressly preserved, which is a sum for funeral expenses. Section 66 of the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 (Qld) lets a family member who brings the Part 10 proceeding pursue that surviving action at the same time, accounting to the personal representative for anything recovered on it.

Which scheme the claim runs through

How the death happened decides which statutory process governs, and each has its own opening step and its own clock. A dependency claim sits expressly inside the definition of a claim in both pre-court statutes, so the family does not have to argue the point. Under section 4 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld) a claim includes, “for a fatal injury, a claim on behalf of the deceased’s dependants or estate”, and the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld) uses the same construction in its dictionary. That Act is the residual one, and section 6 marks out its edges: it does not reach an injury the CTP scheme covers, nor a work injury to the extent the workers’ compensation Act regulates the damages entitlement, nor a dust-related condition.

A work death produces two things at once: a statutory entitlement that does not turn on proving fault, and a possible damages claim that does. Part 11 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) applies where a worker dies because of an injury, subject to an exception in section 194(2) for a death from a latent onset terminal condition for which lump sum compensation or damages had already been paid. Section 199 requires the insurer to pay the reasonable expenses of the worker’s medical treatment and funeral. The death benefit itself is set by sections 200 and 201, and the Act states no dollar figure for it: the amounts are multiples and percentages of QOTE, a figure recalculated for each financial year.

Who the law counts as a dependant

Part 10 works from a closed list. Section 62 defines a member of the deceased’s family as a child of the deceased, including a child born alive after the death; a person to whom the deceased stood in the place of a parent; a parent of the deceased; a person who stood in the place of a parent to the deceased; or a spouse. The same section extends “child” to a grandchild and a stepchild, and “parent” to a step-parent and a grandparent.

What the list does not include is a brother or a sister. However close the relationship and however real the dependence, a sibling sits outside section 62 and so outside the Part 10 action. The workers’ compensation scheme is drawn differently and adds a test of its own. Section 28 of that Act counts a brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister as a member of the family, and section 27 then requires actual dependence, defining a dependant as a member of the family who was completely or partly dependent on the worker’s earnings at the time of death, or who would have been but for the death.

For a de facto partner, section 63 sets a threshold. A de facto partner is a spouse for Part 10 only where the couple lived together as a couple on a genuine domestic basis for a continuous period of at least two years ending on the death, or for a shorter period where the circumstances evidenced a clear intention that the relationship be a long-term, committed one. Where the deceased left a dependant who is a child of the relationship, living together immediately before the death is enough.

What the award is calculated on

Section 64(3) is the whole measure: damages “proportional to the damage to them resulting from the death”. The courts read that as a financial exercise. In De Sales v Ingrilli [2002] HCA 52, decided on the equivalent Fatal Accidents Act 1959 (WA), Gleeson CJ described damages as calculated by reference to the pecuniary benefit that could reasonably have been expected from the continuance of the life, and said that “damages do not compensate for non-pecuniary injuries such as grief”. McHugh J put it the same way: “Sentiment has no place in the action. The relatives are not compensated for grief, sorrow or bereavement.” A majority in the same case held that no separate allowance should ordinarily be made for the possibility, even the probability, that a surviving partner will form a new relationship.

None of that means the loss is measured only by a pay packet. In Nguyen v Nguyen [1990] HCA 9, a Queensland appeal, the High Court held that compensation may be recovered for the loss of a deceased’s domestic services even where those services have not been replaced at any monetary cost, overruling two earlier Full Court decisions to the contrary. The unpaid work a parent or partner did in running a household is part of what the dependants lost, whether or not anyone has since been paid to do it.

Fault on the part of the person who died reduces the award rather than ending it. Section 10 of the Law Reform Act 1995 (Qld) provides that contributory negligence does not defeat a claim and that damages are reduced to the extent the court considers just and equitable. Subsection 10(5) carries that into a death: where a person dies partly as a result of their own failure to take reasonable care, damages recoverable in the Part 10 action for that person’s dependants must be reduced to a proportionate extent.

The step a work death must clear before damages

Section 237 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) names the only people who may seek damages for an injury sustained by a worker, and for a death it imposes a precondition. A dependant may seek damages only if compensation for the worker’s death has been paid to, or for the benefit of, that dependant under the statutory death provisions, or the insurer has issued that dependant a certificate under section 132B. The section goes on to declare that it abolishes any entitlement to seek damages in a person it does not name.

Section 132B is for the family who have not lodged a compensation application. They may apply to the insurer for a certificate stating that they are a dependant of the deceased worker, supported by a certificate from a doctor who attended the worker. The insurer must decide within 40 business days and may reject the application only on four stated grounds, and a rejection can be reviewed. Allowing the application does not itself entitle the person to compensation, and nor does it finish the pre-court process: section 275 still requires a notice of claim for damages to be given to the insurer before a proceeding is started. The certificate opens the damages door and nothing else.

The dates that decide whether a claim can be brought

The general limitation period is three years. Section 11(1) of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) applies expressly to an action in which the damages claimed include “damages in respect of injury resulting from the death of any person”, and bars it after three years from the date the cause of action arose. It is not invariable: section 11(2) takes a dust-related condition outside any limitation period, and in a workers’ compensation damages claim section 302(2) allows a proceeding to be brought after the period has run where a complying notice of claim was given in time or a court gives leave.

The notice periods in the table are much shorter, and they are what catches families out, because they run from the accident or incident rather than from anything to do with the estate. Missing one is usually not the end of it, because under section 37(3) of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld) and section 9(5) of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld) the obligation to give the notice continues and a reasonable excuse for the delay must be given with it. There is one hard stop: where a motor vehicle cannot be identified and no notice reaches the Nominal Defendant within nine months of the accident, the claim against the Nominal Defendant is barred. Separately, once a compulsory conference has been held in a workers’ compensation damages claim, section 302(3) requires the proceeding to be brought within 60 days.

Not more than one proceeding under Part 10 may be brought against a person in relation to a death. Section 65 says so, and says who may bring it: the personal representative, or any one or more of the family members who suffered damage, for the benefit of all of them. A notice given by a person able to bring the proceeding counts as given on behalf of all of them, so a family need not wait for a grant of probate before the clock-stopping step is taken. If damages are awarded, the court divides them in the shares it decides.

Published 5 October 2026.

What tends to matter early

Identifying the right scheme comes first, because the opening step and its deadline differ in each one. Fault evidence matters as much, because police and coronial material, workplace incident reports and any footage bear on liability and on the apportionment section 10 of the Law Reform Act 1995 (Qld) requires. It is sometimes assumed that nothing can be done until a coronial inquest has finished, but the limitation and notice periods run on their own terms regardless. The official text is published by the Queensland Government, including section 64 of the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 and section 237 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.

Related reading

• The compulsory conference in Queensland injury claims
• Personal injury law in Queensland: categories and time limits
• How Fraser Lawyers helps with CTP claims
• How Fraser Lawyers helps with personal injury claims
• Contact Fraser Lawyers

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Queensland law and the figures referred to can change, and every situation turns on its own facts. Contact Fraser Lawyers for advice specific to your circumstances.

If you would like to discuss your matter, you can book a consultation or call (07) 5554 6116.