Personal Injury Lawyer In Fremantle, WA

The directors run every claim themselves, and they know the 2024 to 2026 WA law changes that affect what you can claim.

What changed for Fremantle injury claims in 2024, 2025, and 2026

Three changes to WA injury law will shape what you can claim, and all of them landed between 2024 and 2026. A lot of injured people, and some of the firms they call, have not caught up yet.

The Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 replaced the 1981 Act on 1 July 2024. The headline change for an injured worker is money timing. Under the new Act, the insurer has to start provisional payments for your income and reasonable medical expenses while it is still deciding whether to accept liability. Before, a worker could sit for weeks with no income and a contested claim. Now the payments start earlier, and the medical and health expense entitlement increased under the new Act.

The scale of the scheme tells you why insurers fight. WorkCover WA’s own figures for 2024 to 2025 record $1.645 billion in claim payments across 29,304 claims, with 18,014 of those involving at least one day off work. Long-duration claims, the ones where someone is off the job for 60 days or more, have climbed to 9,081. That is the pool the insurer is managing when it reviews your file. You are one line in a billion-dollar ledger, and the person on the other side does this full time.

Then there is 1 July 2026. From that date, WorkCover WA’s revised permanent impairment guidelines let an Approved Permanent Impairment Assessor run a “special assessment” even if your injury has not stabilised after 18 months. The assessor has to rate you on how you present on the day. They are not allowed to discount your impairment because you might have surgery later or might recover. For a worker whose back or knee is still bad at the 18-month mark, that single rule can be the difference between an assessment and a wait with nothing.

Change	Before	From the new rules	Why it matters to your claim
Payments while liability is decided	Could stall until the claim was accepted	Provisional income and medical payments must start while the insurer decides	Money arrives earlier, not after the fight
Medical and health expense entitlement	Lower capped amount	Higher entitlement under the 2023 Act	More treatment covered before you hit the ceiling
Permanent impairment when not stabilised	Assessment often waited for stabilisation	Special assessment allowed after 18 months, rated on the day (1 July 2026)	You are not stuck in limbo if the injury is slow to settle

Call (08) 6558 1786 if you were injured before these dates and want to know which rules apply to your claim.

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PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM

An unsafe footpath, a poorly maintained staircase, a defective product: if someone else’s negligence caused your injury in a public place, you can claim under the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA). We recover treatment costs, lost
income, and pain and suffering. The first review is free.

WORKERS COMPENSATION CLAIM

Injured at work, or on a work journey between sites? WA’s no-fault scheme likely covers you, whether you are full time, casual, or a contractor. Under the 2023 Act, provisional income and medical payments must start while the insurer decides liability. We lodge the claim and chase those payments.

CAR ACCIDENT CLAIM

Driver, passenger, cyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian: if you were hurt in a crash, you can claim through ICWA under the compulsory third party scheme, even if you were partly at fault. The key step is sending ICWA your Notice of Intention to Make a Claim within six months. We handle it from there.

The deadlines that quietly kill Fremantle claims

Ask most people about injury time limits and they will say “three years.” That is the common law limit under the Limitation Act 2005 (WA), and it is real. It is also not the deadline that usually breaks a claim. The earlier notification steps do that.

For a car crash anywhere in WA, including the roads around Fremantle, two things need to happen early. You complete an online crash report, and you send ICWA a Notice of Intention to Make a Claim. These are expected within six months of the crash. Miss that window and the claim is not automatically dead, because ICWA has to show it was actually prejudiced by the late notice. But you have handed the insurer an argument it did not need, and you are now explaining yourself instead of recovering.

Workers compensation runs on its own clock. The claim form goes to the insurer through your employer, and the sooner the medical certificate and claim are lodged, the sooner those provisional payments have to start. Every injury gets recorded, including the ones that seem minor on the day. A shoulder that aches after a shift at the port can be the injury that a doctor links to a torn rotator cuff six weeks later, and an unrecorded injury is a disputed injury.

Claim type	First step	Practical deadline	What a miss costs you
Motor vehicle (ICWA)	Online crash report + Notice of Intention to Make a Claim	Within 6 months of the crash	Insurer can argue prejudice; you lose momentum
Common law personal injury	Court proceedings	3 years from the injury (Limitation Act 2005)	Claim is statute-barred
Workers compensation	Lodge claim + medical certificate with the insurer	As soon as possible after injury	Provisional payments start later; injuries get disputed

Evidence weakens faster than any of these clocks run. CCTV from a Cappuccino Strip venue gets overwritten. A witness from the car park forgets. The photographs you take on day one are worth more than the statement you reconstruct in month four.

The claims Soul Legal runs for Fremantle clients

Fremantle is a working port town with heavy industry on its edge, so the injuries here are not abstract. Wharf and stevedoring work at Fremantle Port, fabrication and shipbuilding at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson, warehousing through O’Connor and Bibra Lake, plus the ordinary crashes on Marmion Street and Stirling Highway. Soul Legal handles the personal injury compensation claims that come out of that.

Workers’ Compensation Claims

If you were hurt on the job, you are likely covered under WA’s no-fault scheme, whether you are full time, part time, casual, or in some contractor arrangements. We lodge with the insurer, chase the provisional payments the 2023 Act now requires, challenge rejected claims, and where an employer’s negligence caused a serious injury, we run the additional common law claim. See our full guide to workers compensation claims.

Motor Vehicle Accident Claims

Driver, passenger, cyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian, you can claim through ICWA under the compulsory third party scheme, even if you were partly at fault. More on the ICWA process below, because the threshold rules decide whether a claim is worth running. Start with our motor vehicle accident claims page.

Public Liability Claims

A fall on a poorly maintained staircase, a trip on a broken footpath, an object that was not secured. Occupiers owe a duty under the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA). The SFM Marine case below shows what that duty looks like when a court enforces it. This is how we run public liability claims.

Medical Negligence Claims

Surgical error, missed diagnosis, delayed treatment, medication mistakes. These claims turn on expert evidence, and they take patience. Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch and the surrounding clinics serve this catchment, and harm that happens in care is claimable when a provider fell below the standard.

Criminal Injuries Compensation

Victims of assault and other offences can claim through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme without suing the offender directly.

Dog Attack Compensation

Under the Dog Act 1976 (WA), owners carry strict liability for what their animals do, and the payout often comes through the owner’s home insurance.

One free call. You speak with a director, you get a straight read on whether you have a claim, and you decide what happens next.

*At Soul Legal we only charge fees in personal injury claims if you are successful settling your claim or have a successful judgment (excluding disbursements). A Defendant may be able to claim costs against you if successful in defending an action brought by you

Does a five-minute stop on the way to a job kill your claim?

This one comes up constantly for Fremantle tradies and reps who drive between sites. You are on a work journey, you duck into a shop or a toilet, you get hurt. Is the claim gone?

A 2025 WA District Court decision says no, within limits. In Oz Shut Pty Ltd v Hilton [2025] WADC 10, a sales consultant stopped at a shopping centre for about 15 minutes before a 4pm client appointment. She used the toilet, bought a work dress at Kmart, and tripped on the way out at 3:55pm, hurting her knee and ankle. The insurer argued she had stepped outside her employment. The court disagreed. A 15-minute personal stop, especially when the thing she bought was for work, was not a “substantial deviation” under section 9(2) of the 2023 Act. The injury stayed compensable.

The older “one-hour rule” that people still quote is gone under the new Act. What matters now is whether the interruption was substantial and whether it broke the connection with work. That is a fact question, and it is exactly the kind of point where having a lawyer who has read the 2025 cases beats having one who is working from a 2019 script.

What an injury claim is actually worth in WA

No honest lawyer quotes you a number on the first call, because the value turns on the injury, the medical evidence, and your loss of income. What we can do is show you how the scheme decides, because the thresholds are public and they are specific.

For a motor vehicle claim through ICWA, pain and suffering (general damages) only becomes payable once your assessed non-pecuniary loss passes a threshold. For 2024 to 2025 that threshold is $25,500, and the scheme is capped at a maximum of $485,000. Both figures are indexed each financial year. Below the threshold you recover nothing for pain and suffering, though your treatment costs and lost earnings sit in separate categories. This is why a careful medical assessment matters so much on a borderline claim. A few points of impairment either side of that line change the shape of the whole case.

Across every scheme, the categories you can recover from look like this:

Claim type	Scheme or law	What you can recover
Motor vehicle	ICWA, Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act	Treatment, loss of earning capacity, care and help, pain and suffering above the threshold
Workers compensation	Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023	Income compensation, medical and health expenses, rehabilitation, permanent impairment; common law on top for serious negligence
Public liability	Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA)	Treatment, lost income, care, pain and suffering
Catastrophic injury	Catastrophic Injuries Support Scheme (from 1 July 2016)	Lifetime treatment, care, and support for eligible motor vehicle injuries

A serious claim is often held open until the injury stabilises, which can take a year or more, because settling early on a still-moving injury is how people get short-changed. The trade-off is patience now for an accurate number later. We will tell you which side of that line your claim sits on.

Who runs your claim at Soul Legal

On a claim that affects your health and your income, the person matters more than the slogan. At Soul Legal, your file is run by a director, not passed to a graduate for the stages that decide the outcome.

Kevin Wong has practised personal injury law since 1991, after graduating from UWA Law School that year. He has appeared at WorkCover, the District Court, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Supreme Court of WA, the Federal Court, and the High Court of Australia. Two matters are worth naming, because they changed the law rather than just settling. He was instructing solicitor in De Sales v Ingrilli [2002] HCA 52, the High Court case that abolished the old “chance of remarriage” discount that used to cut the damages of widows in dependency claims. He was counsel in Westrupp v BIS Industries [2015] FCAFC 173, which established workers compensation coverage for FIFO workers, a decision that matters to a lot of people in this state.

Rebecca Sorgiovanni has practised since 1997, trained at UWA and Murdoch, and founded her own firm before co-founding Soul Legal in 2018. She is an accredited dispute resolution practitioner and established new law in Re Her Honour Judge Schoombee; Ex Parte Attorney General for WA [2011] WASCA 129. She has run workers compensation and injury matters across Perth’s southern suburbs for more than 25 years.

The firm was named for the client, not the founders. Two things follow from that in practice. Your first consultation is free and confidential, and if you cannot travel because of your injury, they come to you, at home or in hospital, across Fremantle and greater Perth.

How a Soul Legal claim runs

You do not need to understand the scheme to start. You need to make one call. This is what happens after it.

Stage 1: Free claim review. A conversation about what happened and whether you have a claim worth running. Before it, you get an upload link so your documents can be read in advance, which means the first meeting is about advice, not paperwork.

Stage 2: Building the case. Medical evidence, wage records, witness accounts, and the reports that value the injury. This is where injuries get properly recorded and where a claim is won or lost.

Stage 3: Lodging. The claim goes in through the right channel, ICWA for a crash, the insurer for a work injury, with the notice steps met on time.

Stage 4: Negotiation. Most claims settle. We put the evidence to the insurer and push for a figure that reflects the injury and the loss, not the insurer’s opening position.

Stage 5: Resolution. If a fair settlement is on the table, you take it. If it is not, the matter goes to WorkCover or the District Court. Court is the backstop, not the plan.

Related: Learn more about personal injury claims and car accident injury claims in Perth, our no win, no fee guarantee, or contact our Perth team. You can also read about your rights via the Insurance Commission of WA.

Soul Legal serves Fremantle and the port and southern suburbs

Soul Legal does not have a Fremantle shopfront, and it does not need one to run your claim. The Perth CBD office at Suite 2/22 St Georges Terrace is a short drive or one line on the train from Fremantle, and the second office is at 17 Baskerville Crescent, Baldivis, to the south. For clients who cannot travel, the directors visit at home or in hospital.

The firm acts for injured people across Fremantle, North Fremantle, East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Beaconsfield, White Gum Valley, Hilton, O’Connor, Hamilton Hill, Spearwood, Coogee, Bibra Lake, Henderson, and the wider port and industrial corridor down to Kwinana. If you are across the river, we also help injured people through our Applecross personal injury page and with personal injury help in Subiaco.

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Frequently asked questions about personal injury claims in Fremantle, WA

Do I need a lawyer based in Fremantle?

No. Injury claims in WA run under state-wide schemes through ICWA and WorkCover, not through a local court counter. What matters is a lawyer who knows the current WA rules, not the postcode on their door. Soul Legal runs Fremantle claims from the Perth CBD and Baldivis offices and visits clients who cannot travel.

How much does it cost to run a claim?

Nothing up front, and no legal fees unless you win. On a successful claim, most of the legal costs are recovered from the insurer as party-and-party costs. The first consultation is free.

I was hurt at work more than 18 months ago and my injury still is not settled. Am I stuck?

Not from 1 July 2026. WorkCover’s second-edition impairment rules let an approved assessor run a special assessment even when your condition has not stabilised, rated on how you present on the day, without discounting for surgery or recovery you might have later. If you are near that 18-month mark, it is worth a conversation now.

People keep calling me about my car accident. Is that normal?

No, and you should be careful. ICWA suspects nearly a third of new motor injury claims involve “claims harvesting,” where cold callers chase crash victims, sometimes pretending to act for ICWA. You never need an unsolicited caller to claim. Lodge your own Online Crash Report and choose your own lawyer.

Does a quick personal stop on a work trip end my workers comp claim?

Usually not. In Oz Shut Pty Ltd v Hilton [2025] WADC 10, a 15-minute stop for the toilet and a work dress did not take the worker outside her employment. The old one-hour rule is gone. Whether a deviation is “substantial” is now a fact question under the 2023 Act.

What is the time limit on a car accident claim?

Send ICWA the Notice of Intention to Make a Claim within six months of the crash. A late notice is not automatically fatal, because ICWA has to show it was prejudiced, but the six-month step is the one to protect. The three-year limit is a separate, later court deadline.

Can I claim if the accident was partly my fault?

Often yes. ICWA motor injury claims can proceed even where you were partly at fault, with the compensation adjusted for your share. Being partly to blame is not the same as having no claim.

How long does a serious claim take to settle?

A serious injury claim is often held open until the injury stabilises, which can take a year or more, so the final figure reflects the real long-term effect. Straightforward claims move faster. The first review will give you a realistic timeframe for your situation.

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