Motor Accident Compensation in Queensland: CTP Claims, Benefits and Time Limits

Queensland's CTP scheme is fault-based under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994, so an injured person generally has to show another driver was at fault before an insurer will pay, while a separate no-fault scheme, the National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland, covers the state's most serious injuries regardless of who caused the crash.

How Queensland's CTP scheme works

Queensland's Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), the statutory regulator overseeing CTP, describes the scheme in plain terms: an injured person must prove another driver was at fault before the scheme pays out, in contrast to no-fault schemes used in some other states. The governing law is the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (MAIA), and CTP cover is bundled into every vehicle's annual registration. Several licensed insurers compete to write CTP policies, and MAIC's own comparison tool lets a vehicle owner compare pricing across insurers by vehicle class at renewal.

MAIC itself does not insure vehicles or pay claims; it licenses and supervises the CTP insurers, sets the premium range each insurer must file within, investigates claim-farming and fraud, and can take enforcement action against an insurer that breaches its obligations. It began operating on 1 September 1994, is funded by a levy on CTP premiums, and reports to the state's Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training.

Sitting alongside MAIA is the National Injury Insurance Scheme (Queensland) Act 2016 (the NIISQ Act), which creates a separate no-fault layer, NIISQ, for people who suffer a catastrophic injury in a Queensland motor vehicle accident on or after 1 July 2016. NIISQ funds necessary and reasonable lifetime treatment, care and support regardless of who was at fault, and is funded by a levy collected alongside CTP premiums through vehicle registration. It is a genuinely separate scheme from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), despite the similar name and subject matter.

Who is covered

CTP insurance in Queensland does not cover an at-fault driver's own injuries, and it does not cover a single-vehicle accident where no one else was at fault, MAIC's guidance states both exclusions in plain terms. A passenger, pedestrian, cyclist or another driver injured by an at-fault driver can claim against that driver's compulsory policy.

Where the at-fault vehicle cannot be identified, or is unregistered or uninsured, the Nominal Defendant, a statutory body established under MAIA, stands in as the insurer of last resort, a role the fund has performed since 1961. This includes claims against an insolvent insurer.

A person who is catastrophically injured, including in a single-vehicle accident where no one else was at fault, may still be covered through NIISQ, since NIISQ's eligibility test does not depend on fault, only on the injury meeting NIISQ's severity criteria (see below).

Notice of Accident Claim and time limits

MAIA sets a two-track notice regime. For an ordinary claim, notice must generally be given by the earlier of two dates: 9 months after the accident, or if symptoms were not immediately apparent, 9 months after they first appeared, or 1 month after the claimant first consults a lawyer about making a claim. Missing this window is not automatically fatal to an ordinary claim; the duty to give notice continues, and the claimant must include a reasonable excuse for the delay, which the insurer weighs at its own discretion.

Claims against the Nominal Defendant for an unidentified vehicle work differently and less forgivingly: notice should be given within 3 months to be considered on time, but if notice is not given within 9 months of the accident, the claim against the Nominal Defendant is barred outright, with no reasonable-excuse exception. This is a stricter rule than the general 9-month/1-month test and is easy to conflate with it.

A separate court deadline applies once a claim reaches litigation: proceedings for damages must generally be brought within 3 years of the accident under section 11 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974. A child injured in a crash generally has until their 21st birthday to start court proceedings, since the limitation clock does not start running until they turn 18. Giving timely notice of a claim, or applying for the court's leave, before the 3-year period expires can extend the window to bring proceedings by up to 6 months after that notice, or longer if a court allows it.

A driver involved in a crash that injures or kills someone must report it to police as soon as possible, and except in unusual circumstances within 24 hours, under the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995. If the driver does not do this, a claimant can still get police notice on record using MAIA's own fallback notice provision, which does not carry a separately stated deadline of its own beyond the urgency built into the claim-notice timeframes above.

What you can receive

Lost income under Queensland CTP is not paid as the claim progresses. MAIC's own guidance draws the contrast directly with WorkCover: lost wages are factored into settlement negotiations with the insurer rather than paid week by week, and the final amount depends on the agreement reached or a court's award. Treatment and rehabilitation are treated more immediately: once an insurer has accepted liability, or agreed to fund rehabilitation without admitting liability, it can cover reasonable treatment and rehabilitation costs ahead of a final liability finding, though this remains a discretionary insurer accommodation rather than a guaranteed statutory benefit.

General damages for pain and suffering (non-economic loss) use an Injury Scale Value, a single number from 0 to 100 that a court assigns having regard to rules made under the Civil Liability Act 2003 and to ISVs given in past cases; 0 means the injury is not severe enough to justify any award, and 100 is described in the Act as the gravest conceivable kind of injury. The Civil Liability Regulation 2025 sets out how to calculate the ISV and maps injury types to ISV ranges, but the dollar value attached to each ISV point is fixed separately, each financial year, by a Ministerial Civil Liability Indexation Notice made under the Act. Under the notice current for the 2026-27 financial year, an ISV of 100 works out to approximately $494,150, calculated from the notice's base and variable amounts for the top ISV band. That figure applies only to injuries assessed for the 2026-27 financial year and will be replaced by a new notice the following 1 July, so it should always be checked against whichever indexation notice is current when a claim is actually valued.

NIISQ: the no-fault catastrophic injury scheme

NIISQ exists because ordinary CTP does not cover a driver's own fault-free injuries. It applies to a serious personal injury caused by a prescribed vehicle in a Queensland accident on or after 1 July 2016, provided the injury also meets eligibility criteria set out in regulation. The National Injury Insurance Scheme Agency's own eligibility page lists the qualifying injury categories: permanent spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, multiple or high-level limb amputation, permanent brachial plexus injury equivalent to shoulder disarticulation, severe burns, and permanent traumatic blindness, each with its own detailed clinical threshold.

NIISQ funds necessary and reasonable treatment, care and support, in some cases for the person's lifetime, and is funded through a levy collected as part of CTP-related vehicle registration costs, so it does not depend on the injured person winning a liability argument the way an ordinary CTP claim does. A person who already has a final judgment or binding settlement covering the same needs is not eligible to participate.

Disputes over NIISQ eligibility go through their own pathway, separate from ordinary CTP disputes: an internal review within 28 days, then an external review to either the Medical Assessment Tribunal for medical eligibility questions or QCAT, using Form 23, for questions like whether an incident meets the legal definition of a motor vehicle accident, lodged within 28 days of the internal review decision.

CTP premiums

CTP premiums are bundled into a vehicle's annual registration and vary by insurer and vehicle class. MAIC does not publish a single fixed price list; instead it operates an interactive comparison tool that returns pricing from each licensed insurer once a vehicle owner enters their registration renewal window and vehicle class, covering classes 1 through 26. Multiple insurers compete within a premium range MAIC sets and each insurer must file within, and MAIC also collects a levy through premiums to help fund NIISQ.

Disputes and legal costs

MAIC has no legal power to decide an individual dispute over fault, rehabilitation funding or the value of a claim; its own guidance states plainly that unresolved disagreements between a claimant and an insurer have to go to court. Before a claimant can bring a court action for damages, MAIA requires a compulsory conference between the parties, which either side can call once 6 months have passed since notice of the claim was given, or, if the insurer needed more information, the later of 6 months from notice or 1 month after that information was supplied. If the conference does not settle the claim, both sides must exchange mandatory final offers, a structured pre-litigation step that functions in place of a dedicated tribunal.

For rehabilitation-specific disputes only, MAIC can arrange voluntary, non-binding mediation with costs shared equally between the parties, sitting between an insurer's internal review and a court application for a binding determination. A dispute between a claimant and their own legal representative is directed to the Queensland Law Society or the Legal Services Commission, outside the CTP claims pathway entirely.

Interstate accidents

MAIC's own guidance sets out how Queensland's fault-based scheme interacts with other states. If an interstate-registered vehicle is at fault in a Queensland accident, the claim proceeds under Queensland's process but is lodged with and managed by the insurer or CTP authority in the state where that vehicle is registered. If a Queensland-registered vehicle is at fault in an accident outside Queensland, cover extends to the injured person's treatment, rehabilitation and compensation anywhere in Australia.

Whether a Queensland driver injured while driving interstate can claim at all depends on the other state's own scheme, not Queensland's. MAIC identifies Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia as fault-based schemes, where an at-fault driver generally cannot claim for their own injuries, and New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory as offering some benefits to at-fault drivers or riders regardless of fault. Across every jurisdiction, benefits can also be reduced or denied where the injury was substantially caused by the claimant's own serious wrongdoing, such as intoxication or criminal activity.

Work-related crashes and other consequences

A crash that happens on a work journey can also raise a separate claim under Queensland's workers compensation scheme; see our guide to workers compensation in Queensland for how that system works alongside a CTP claim. An at-fault driver also faces consequences outside the compensation system entirely, including demerit points against their Queensland driving record and penalties under Queensland's drink driving laws where alcohol was involved. Queensland's CTP claim deadlines sit outside Australia's general civil statute of limitations rules, which is worth checking separately if a crash also gives rise to a different kind of civil claim. See our Australia motor accident compensation guide for how Queensland's scheme compares with the fault-based and no-fault schemes used in other states.