If a medical negligence claim succeeds, compensation is meant to put you, as far as money can, in the position you would have been in had the negligence not happened. It is not a windfall and it is not a punishment of the practitioner. It is an attempt to account for what the harm has actually cost you — past and future.
Compensation is grouped into "heads of damage". The mix that applies depends entirely on your circumstances, so the categories below are a guide to what can be claimed, not a list of what every claim recovers.
Medical and rehabilitation costs
You can generally claim the cost of treatment made necessary by the negligence — surgery, hospital stays, medication, rehabilitation, therapy and aids or equipment. This covers both what you have already paid and the reasonable cost of treatment you will still need. Future costs are estimated with medical evidence, so good records and expert input matter here too.
Care and support
If your injury means you need help with everyday tasks — personal care, household tasks, transport to appointments — the value of that care can be claimed. Importantly, this can include unpaid care provided by family or friends, not only paid services. There are specific rules about when and how care of this kind is compensated, so it is worth flagging early if someone has been looking after you.
Lost income and superannuation
Where the injury has affected your ability to work, you can generally claim for income you have lost and income you are likely to lose in the future. Loss of superannuation that you would have accrued can also form part of this.
Future loss is necessarily an estimate. It draws on your work history, your earning capacity before and after the injury, and medical evidence about your prognosis. This is one of the larger heads of damage in many serious cases, which is why getting the evidence right matters.
General damages — pain and suffering
General damages compensate for the non-financial impact of an injury: pain and suffering, and the loss of enjoyment or amenity of life.
In Victoria, access to general damages is restricted. You generally cannot recover for pain and suffering unless your injury meets a "significant injury" threshold — a level of permanent impairment assessed under the legislation. There are also limits on the amount that can be awarded for general damages.
We have deliberately not put numbers on the threshold or the cap here. Both are set by legislation, are subject to indexation, and have been the subject of legal argument, so any figure needs to be confirmed against the current law before it goes on the site. The practical point is that not every injury will reach the threshold for pain-and-suffering damages — but the other heads above can still be claimable even where it does not.
How compensation is worked out
There is no fixed tariff. Each head of damage is supported by its own evidence — receipts and medical reports for treatment costs, employment and financial records for economic loss, and impairment assessments for general damages. The total reflects your individual loss, which is why two people with a similar diagnosis can recover very different amounts.
This is also why we focus on resolving claims efficiently rather than running up the meter. The aim is to recover what you are properly owed, not to maximise process. You can read more about that approach in How it works.
A note on time
What you can claim is one question; whether you can still bring the claim at all is another. Medical negligence claims have strict deadlines — see Time limits for medical negligence claims.
Finding out what your claim involves
The honest answer to "what is my claim worth" is that it depends on the evidence — and gathering that evidence is what an assessment begins. We will tell you plainly which heads of damage are likely to be in play and what proving them would take. The assessment is free, there is no obligation, and there are no guaranteed outcomes.
To find out which of these heads of damage might apply to you, start a free assessment. We will explain plainly what your claim could involve — there is no obligation, and no guaranteed outcomes.