Wrongful Death Claims in Queensland: Civil Proceedings Act, Who Can Claim, and Time Limits

Queensland's wrongful death claim is set out in the Civil Proceedings Act 2011, Part 10, and it does not include a payment for grief.

The Act and Where the Claim Lives

Queensland does not have a separate fatal accidents statute. The claim for the benefit of a deceased person's family is Part 10 of the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 ("Wrongful death proceedings," sections 62 to 70). Under section 64, a person who would have been liable to the deceased for a personal injury, had the death not resulted, remains liable to an action for damages despite the death. The court may award the deceased's family the damages it considers proportional to the loss the death caused them.

This dependency claim is separate from the deceased's own pre-death cause of action, which survives for the benefit of the estate under section 66 of the Succession Act 1981. Both claims can run at the same time. A family member who brings the Part 10 claim may also pursue the survival claim on the estate's behalf, but must account to the personal representative for anything recovered that way.

Who Can Bring the Claim

Section 62 of the Civil Proceedings Act defines a "member of the deceased person's family" as:

• a child of the deceased, a term that includes a grandchild and a stepchild, and includes a child born alive after the death
• a person the deceased stood in place of a parent to, immediately before death
• a parent of the deceased, a term that includes a step-parent and a grandparent
• a person who stood in place of a parent to the deceased, immediately before the death
• a spouse of the deceased

Section 63 defines "spouse" to include a de facto partner, provided the couple lived together as a couple on a genuine domestic basis for a continuous period of at least two years ending on death, or for a shorter period where the relationship showed a clear intention to be long-term, or for any length of time immediately before death if there was a dependent child of the relationship.

Unlike some other jurisdictions, Queensland's Part 10 does not require the family to wait on the personal representative before acting. Section 65 lets the personal representative, or any one or more family members who suffered damage from the death, bring the single permitted proceeding directly. The court divides any damages recovered among the family members it finds suffered loss.

What Compensation Covers

Under section 64(3), the family's damages are "proportional to the damage... resulting from the death," a financial or dependency-based measure rather than a fixed schedule. Funeral expenses are recoverable, but they sit under the survival claim rather than the dependency claim: section 66(2)(d)(i) of the Succession Act allows a sum for funeral expenses to be included in what the estate recovers.

Queensland has no solatium or grief-damages head. A search of the full text of the Civil Proceedings Act 2011, the Succession Act 1981, and the Civil Liability Act 2003 finds no reference to solatium or grief anywhere in any of the three. The award is confined to the proportional-loss formula in section 64(3), and grief or loss of companionship, as such, is not a named or compensable head.

The estate's survival claim under section 66 of the Succession Act is narrower than the family's dependency claim. It does not include damages for the deceased's own pain and suffering, bodily or mental harm, or curtailment of their expectation of life (section 66(2)(a)), and it does not include exemplary damages (section 66(2)(b)). A narrow exception restores some of those damages for a dust-related-condition claim the deceased had already started before dying of the condition.

Whether a broader damages cap in the Civil Liability Act 2003 reaches the family's dependency award itself is not settled on the face of the Act; that Act's general damages-assessment rules are written with the deceased's own personal injury claim in mind, and Queensland's survival provision already excludes the heads those caps typically target.

Nervous Shock and Psychiatric Injury Claims

Queensland has no dedicated statutory scheme for a relative's nervous shock or psychiatric injury claim arising from a death. The Civil Liability Act 2003 does not contain a mental harm chapter, and its only reference to the subject is the general definition of "personal injury," which includes psychological or psychiatric injury. A relative's claim for psychiatric injury from witnessing or learning of a death is assessed under the Act's ordinary duty and breach provisions and common-law principles, not against a fixed statutory list of qualifying relatives.

The Deceased's Own Contributory Negligence

Where the deceased's own failure to take reasonable care partly caused the death, section 10(5) of the Law Reform Act 1995 reduces the damages recoverable under both the family's Part 10 claim and the estate's survival claim, to the extent the court considers just and equitable having regard to the deceased's share of the responsibility. The reduction applies to both claims in the same proportion.

Time Limits

Section 11(1) of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 sets a three-year limit, running from the date the cause of action arose, for a personal injury or death claim. This is the same limitation section that governs ordinary personal injury claims, and it applies to both the family's Part 10 claim and the estate's survival claim under the Succession Act.

Two extensions apply narrowly. Section 29 extends the period for a person under a legal disability, capping their claim at three years from ceasing to be under the disability or from death, whichever comes first, and sections 30 and 31 allow a discoverability extension where a decisive fact was not reasonably knowable in time. Section 11A removes the time limit entirely for a claim arising from child abuse, whether brought as a Part 10 wrongful death claim or a Succession Act survival claim.

Motor Vehicle and Workplace Deaths

A death in a motor vehicle accident does not shift to a separate statutory scheme in Queensland. The compulsory third party insurance scheme under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 is fault-based, and Queensland has no statutory death lump sum outside the ordinary Part 10 claim. The claim is the same wrongful death claim described above, funded by the at-fault driver's CTP insurer. For the claims process itself, see motor accident compensation in Queensland.

A death arising from a workplace injury is instead handled under Chapter 3, Part 11 of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003, sections 195 to 200, which provides a lump-sum death benefit to the personal representative or dependants, apportioned by the insurer, along with medical and funeral expenses. The current benefit amount comes from a formula in the Act itself, multiplied by a wage index set annually outside it, so it is covered separately at workers compensation in Queensland.

The Coroner's Role

An inquest is a fact-finding process, not a compensation process. Under section 45(5) of the Coroners Act 2003, a coroner must not include in a finding any statement that a person is, or may be, guilty of an offence or civilly liable for something. An inquest can produce evidence and recommendations that inform a later wrongful death claim, but it has no power to award or determine compensation.

The estate is administered separately from the wrongful death claim. Where a personal representative has not yet been appointed, see applying for probate in Australia and, for how the estate passes without a will, who inherits under intestacy.

For background on Queensland's fatal-death investigation process, see court records in Queensland. For a comparison of how other Australian states and territories handle wrongful death claims, see the Australia wrongful death hub.