By Belinda Cassidy -
Snapshot
- The ‘relevant insurer’ is a new concept under the Motor Accident Injuries Act.
- Getting it right is important for the smooth flow of a statutory benefits claim.
- SIRA should publish the arrangements for determining the relevant insurer to avoid disputation and promote the open and transparent management of claims.
This article is the second in a series about the NSW CTP scheme, aimed at providing practitioners with more information about the scheme and how it’s progressing as the second anniverary approaches. The first article, ‘The NSW CTP scheme in practice’, published on pp 76-77 of the August edition, gave an overview of the scheme, minor injuries, at-fault and not at-fault claims as well as no-fault accidents, dispute resolution, and claims statistics. This month, we explore the concept of the relevant insurer.
Under the Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999 (NSW), or in the case of a common law claim under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 (NSW) (‘the Act’), a claim is made by giving notice to all potential defendants, that is, the CTP insurer of any of the vehicles against which there may be a common law action in negligence.
In a claim for statutory benefits, it is not so simple. Section 6.12(1) of the Act provides that a claim for statutory benefits is made by giving notice to the relevant insurer and under s 3.2(1) the relevant insurer pays those benefits. Because the claimant only gets one set of benefits, there can only ever be one relevant insurer.
