The TAC team at Redlich's Work Injury Lawyers continue to be very concerned by the serious delays being experienced by people injured in transport accidents in their dealings with the TAC.
Redlich's Work Injury Lawyers currently has a large number of applications with the TAC for seriously injured clients to be granted Certificates which would allow them to sue the parties responsible for their injuries. In some cases, clients have been waiting for more than two years for the TAC to make a decision. As a result they are unable to get the compensation which they are entitled to. Such delay causes needless and unjustifiable anguish to seriously injured people.
Furthermore, the TAC is not responding sufficiently or at all to requests for assistance which they are obliged under the legislation to provide. In one recent case, a client of Redlich's Work Injury Lawyers was discharged from hospital after undergoing a serious procedure. The client, who lives alone, was assured by the TAC that they would organise home help for her, but none was provided and she was left on her own for 9 days without the care that she was legally entitled to. Only for her daughter coming to her aid the client would have been left completely helpless. Her local MP, commenting on the situation, said that 'if a dog had been treated in a similar fashion then it would have been front page news'.
Michael Lombard commented I feel that the decision to move TAC operations from Melbourne to Geelong has resulted in the loss of many competent TAC staff, which has resulted in the organisation becoming less efficient and more unresponsive to the needs of injured people.
Redlich's Work Injury Lawyers calls on the TAC to urgently address the current backlog in their system and to comply with their obligations under the Transport Accident Act. We urge the government to take action to ensure that seriously injured people do not continue to suffer the consequences of the decision to move the TAC from Melbourne to Geelong.