Car Accident Claim Time Limit | NSW Deadlines Explained

Four car accident claim time limits run from the day of the crash in NSW. Two of them fall at 28 days, one at three months, and one at three years. Missing one does not always end the others, and the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 accepts a late claim where you give a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay. This article sets out each deadline as it applies under the current CTP scheme, and what to do if one has passed.

NSW CTP Insurance Claim Time Limits Under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017

In NSW, compensation for injury after a car accident is handled through the Compulsory Third Party (CTP) scheme, which your Green Slip pays for. A CTP insurance claim is governed by the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 (NSW), overseen by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), and covers accidents on or after 1 December 2017. Four claim time limits run at once from the date of the accident.

Reporting the Road Accident to Police: 28 Days

You have 28 days from the traffic accident date to report the crash to the police. SIRA’s guidance is to do it sooner rather than at the deadline, for practical reasons. When you lodge your CTP claim, the insurer asks for the police event number, and a claim without a police report can stall before anyone assesses your injuries.

Lodging Your Accident Claim Form in Time for Back-Paid Loss of Earnings: 28 Days

To have weekly payments back-paid to the day after the accident, your accident claim form must reach the CTP insurer within 28 days. This affects backdating, not eligibility. Missing the 28-day deadline does not end your CTP Motor Vehicle claim or stop the scheme paying for treatment and medical expenses. It only affects the start date for your back pay for lost wages, not your right to claim compensation. The claim form is the Application for Personal Injury Benefits, lodged with the CTP insurer of the at-fault vehicle rather than filed with a court.

The Three-Month Deadline for Your Statutory Benefits Claim

A CTP claim for statutory benefits must be made within three months after the date of the motor accident (section 6.13(1) of the Act). Statutory benefits are the no-fault part of the scheme: early benefits and payments for treatment, care and lost income, available whether or not the crash was your fault. Most personal injury claims on NSW roads stay in this part of the scheme and never go further. A claim made after three months can still be accepted if you give a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay (section 6.13(3)), and either the claim is made within three years, or it relates to a death or to permanent impairment of more than 10%. Our guide to the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 walks through how the scheme fits together.

Claiming Damages for a Motor Vehicle Accident Claim: The Three-Year Deadline

A claim for damages, the fault-based part of the scheme, must be made within three years after the date of the accident (section 6.14(2) of the Act). The clock to start court proceedings runs separately, also three years from that date, and time stops while the claim sits with the Personal Injury Commission, plus two months after its certificate is issued (section 6.32(2)).

If you have read about a statute of limitations for car accident claims, the ordinary rules do not apply here. The Limitation Act 1969 is switched off for motor accident claims by section 6.32(5) of the Act. Your three years comes from the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017, and so do the only extensions available. There is no waiting period either: the 20-month bar that once sat in the Act was removed by the 2022 amendments and no longer applies.

Pre-Court Procedures in NSW: Why You Cannot Go Straight to Court

Most NSW motor vehicle accident claims settle without a courtroom. Before you can commence court proceedings, the Personal Injury Commission has to issue an assessment or exemption certificate (section 6.31). The Commission is the independent body that resolves motor accident claims and workers’ compensation disputes in NSW. If the three years has run and you still need to file a claim in court, you need the court’s leave, plus both a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay and likely damages above a set proportion of the statutory maximum for non-economic loss (section 6.32(3)). That damages threshold does not apply to a claimant who is under legal incapacity (section 6.32(4)).

What Happens If You Miss the 28-Day Mark

For accidents on or after 1 April 2023, missing the 28-day mark does not automatically cost you your back pay. Clause 8A of the Motor Accident Injuries Regulation 2017, inserted by amendment in March 2023, provides that weekly payments for the period before the claim was made are still payable, as long as the claim is made within three months and you give a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay. Whether you knew you had a right to claim, whether you were under a legal incapacity, and whether illness or injury stopped you from claiming all count towards that explanation. And your explanation is deemed satisfactory if the CTP insurer does not reject it within 14 days of receiving it, so silence from the insurer works in your favour.

For accidents before 1 April 2023, clause 8A does not apply, so a late claim past 28 days generally means no weekly payments for the period between the accident and the claim, though the claim itself can still proceed if it is in within three months. If your accident predates 1 April 2023 and you have not yet claimed, speak to an experienced lawyer before you assume the position, because the interaction of the pre-1 April 2023 and post-1 April 2023 rules is fact-specific.

SIRA puts the same point plainly on its current-scheme claims guidance: if you miss the cut-off, you may still be entitled to back pay to the day after the crash date.

Three Different Claims, Three Different Deadlines

Claiming after a car accident can mean three different things, each on its own deadline: your CTP injury claim, the damage to your car, and your own comprehensive car insurance policy. Separate schemes, separate time limits, and words that overlap almost completely.

Your CTP Injury Claim for Compensation

The CTP scheme compensates you for injury sustained in a motor accident. It does not pay for damage to your car. Whether your injury counts as a threshold injury changes what you can claim compensation for within those deadlines, though it does not change the deadlines themselves. For what injury claims cover, see our page on car accident compensation and your rights in NSW and our detailed guide to CTP insurance claims.

Claiming for Damage

Damage to your car sits outside the CTP scheme, so none of the injury time limits above applies to it. There are three usual routes, and the answer depends on which one you take. The first is your own comprehensive car insurance policy, where the limit comes from the policy rather than legislation, and most insurers ask you to notify them as soon as reasonably possible. The second is the at-fault driver’s insurance company, whose policy terms and provider set the pace. The third is a tort claim against the other driver personally, which is not a claim under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017. In NSW, the general limitation period for a tort action is six years from the date the cause of action accrues, under section 14(1)(b) of the Limitation Act 1969. For a car accident, it would ordinarily run from the date of the accident.

Is There a Time Limit on Car Insurance Claims in Australia?

Yes, but it comes from your car insurance policy rather than from any Act of Parliament. Most Australian insurers require you to report an incident as soon as reasonably possible, and some set a window in the product disclosure statement, so your policy schedule is the place to check. Once you have lodged, the General Insurance Code of Practice sets the timeframes your insurance provider has to work to.

When the Deadlines Are Different

Some situations do not fit the standard timetable, because of who was driving or who was hurt.

Where a Family Member Has Died in a Motor Accident

Where a family member has died in a motor accident, the clock for commencing court proceedings runs from the date of death rather than the date of the accident (section 6.32(1)(b) of the Act). Dependants pursuing a claim on behalf of a person who has died therefore have three years from the date of death to start proceedings, which matters where the person survived the crash for a period before dying. The underlying claim itself should still be lodged as promptly as possible, because the statutory benefits clocks (28 days for backdated weekly payments, three months to lodge) continue to run from the date of the accident. Death claims are a specialist area with their own funeral, care and dependency issues, and our page on NSW CTP death claims is a better starting point than a general timetable.

Children and Young People Under 18

A child injured in a NSW car accident is subject to the same time limits as an adult. There is no separate lodgement date: the same three months and three years apply, and a parent or guardian typically makes the claim on the child’s behalf within the standard timeframe, so this rarely becomes an issue in practice.

Hit-and-Run, Unidentified or Uninsured Vehicles

If the at-fault vehicle cannot be identified, or was uninsured, your claim goes to the Nominal Defendant instead of a CTP insurer. Since the 2022 amendments (section 1.10A of the Act, effective 28 November 2022), Nominal Defendant claims for statutory benefits are treated the same way as claims for damages. The ordinary time limits apply: 28 days for back-paid weekly payments, 3 months for statutory benefits, and 3 years for damages.

One extra requirement comes with it. A claim against the Nominal Defendant for an unidentified vehicle cannot be made unless due inquiry and search have been made to identify it (section 2.30 of the Act), which means reporting the crash, chasing witnesses and CCTV, and keeping a record of what was considered reasonable to do. The Nominal Defendant loses the right to reject your claim on that ground if it does not act within two months (section 2.31). Our page on hit-and-run accidents covers the process in detail.

If You Were Partly at Fault

Being partly at fault in a car accident does not change your time limits. The same 28 days, three months and three years apply to you as to anyone else, whether the other driver was largely responsible or the at-fault driver was you. Statutory benefits are a no-fault scheme, so for the early part of your claim it does not matter who caused the crash. Determining fault affects what you can recover later and how much, not when you have to lodge. If you are unsure whether you were partly at fault, that is a reason to get personal advice early rather than to wait and see.

Can You Still Claim if You Have Missed a Deadline?

Often, yes. NSW law anticipates late claims and provides a pathway for them, but exceptions apply, and the outcome depends on the facts.

The test is a full and satisfactory explanation for the delay, given to the insurer first (section 6.14(3)). The Act defines it, which is unusual and helpful. It requires a full account of your conduct, including your actions, knowledge and belief, from the date of the accident to the date you give the explanation. And it is not satisfactory unless a reasonable person in your position, on the same reasonable grounds, would also have missed the deadline (section 6.2). The question is not whether you have a good excuse, but whether someone in your circumstances, knowing what you knew then, would have done the same.

Injuries that were not immediately apparent count: the Act allows evidence of delayed-onset symptoms to form part of the explanation (section 6.14(4)). Whiplash and psychological injury routinely surface weeks after a crash, and that is a recognised reason for a late car accident claim, not a weakness in it. If the insurer does not reject a late claim, or ask you for an explanation, within two months of receiving it, it loses the right to reject on that ground (section 6.14(6)).

What to Do Today: The First Steps in the Claims Process

Our guide to the car accident claims process sets out the full process clearly; however, here is a short summary:

1. Report the car accident to the police and keep the event number from your police report.
2. See a doctor and ask for a NSW Motor Accident Injuries certificate of fitness. Treatment records are what the claim is built on.
3. Write down what you remember from the accident scene, including the at-fault vehicle’s registration and any witness details.
4. Lodge your Application for Personal Injury Benefits with the CTP insurer as soon as possible.
5. If you are unsure who to lodge with, call SIRA’s CTP Assist line on 1300 656 919, or speak to a lawyer.

Evidence decays faster than the time limits run. Witnesses move, CCTV is overwritten within days, and memories blur. Claiming as soon as reasonably possible in the first fortnight is worth more than the extra ten weeks you technically have.

Getting Advice on Your Motor Vehicle Accident Claim

If you believe you are eligible to make a compensation claim, you should seek the advice of an experienced personal injury lawyer. Emma Mead, our Managing Principal, is a Law Society of NSW Accredited Specialist in Personal Injury Law, and our team handles CTP claims across Newcastle, Maitland, the Central Coast, and Sydney. The same scheme and time limits apply to motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians. For advice on your own deadline, contact our team today.

This article is general information — it is not legal advice. Every claim is assessed on its own facts. Read our disclaimer.