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NZ Herald
February 1, 1999
People missing ACC payouts: lawyers
by Tony Stickley
Thousands of people may be missing out on
big, lump-sum ACC payouts, says a group of lawyers specialising in accident
compensation.
And if claims are not filed with the Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation
Insurance Corporation before the end of June, they may have to kiss goodbye
to any hope of getting their money.
In the past week, Accident Compensation Services, a division of Wakefield
Associates of Christchurch, has been sending out flyers, initially in Auckland and Christchurch,
telling people to move quickly if they think they have a claim.
Last night, the Minister of Accident Compensation, Murray McCully, said he
would seek an urgent report from his officials on the Christchurch
lawyers' scheme.
A spokesman for the corporation, Alan Seay, dismissed the language in the
flyer as "misleading" in suggesting that anyone who had had an
injury or had made a claim to the ACC might be entitled to a lump sum.
While the firm says it will not charge if it is unsuccessful in obtaining a
payment, it will levy 30 per cent (plus GST) of any lump sum it manages to
secure from the corporation.
Lawyer Garry Wakefield said last night: "I would not call it ambulance
chasing. There are a lot of people out there who have not been told of their
correct entitlement. They may miss out."
And he defended the fee for successful payouts on the basis of his firm's
expertise in this area. "There is no guarantee that we are going to make
any money out of it."
On their own, he said, people's chances of obtaining their correct
entitlement might be reduced.
Lump-sum payments were abolished in 1992, but Mr Wakefield said a woman last
year successfully argued before Judge Malcolm Beattie in the district court
that she was entitled to what was in effect a lump-sum payment going back
many years.
"We didn't cotton on until about four months ago when the woman argued
her case in front of Judge Beattie," said Mr Wakefield.
He said that until a change in the law in 1997 people were paid an
independence allowance, the current maximum for which is $61.68, from the
date they applied for it, irrespective of when their accident occurred.
However, he said, the wording of the new legislation meant that people could
backdate their claim to when they were injured and receive an accumulation of
their weekly allowance.
Mr Wakefield said a woman who, for example, made a claim under the pre-1997
legislation for being raped in the 1970s would have received the independence
allowance only from when she applied for it.
But if she applied under the changed legislation in the past 12 months, she
should have received compensation dating back to the time of the incident.
"Unless you specifically ask ACC to backdate it, they won't," said
Mr Wakefield.
He said that there was a huge number of people who had never bothered to
claim their weekly allowance either because it was so "measly" or
because they had never been made aware of it.
If they applied now, that measly amount could over the years have grown into
a payout worth thousands of dollars.
But Mr Wakefield warned that people had to move quickly- his flyer says that
more changes in the compensation law mean that from June 30 people will lose
the right to claim an independence allowance or a lump sum.
Mr Seay said that 92 per cent of injury claims to the corporation involved
medical fees only.
"When this flyer suggests than anyone who has had an injury or an
accident in the past may be entitled to this [lump sum], that is somewhat of
an exaggeration.
"And further to that, the independence allowance is payable under a
clearly defined set of circumstances to recognise an impairment.
"So you are talking about a relatively small number of the total cases
that come into ACC that would involve an independence allowance."
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