Key takeaways
- TPD is the claim type where nobody else contributes to your legal costs, so the full cost comes out of your benefit. This is the difference that changes the numbers.
- Our uplift is 25% of our professional fees, which is also the legal maximum in Victoria. It is never a share of your payout.
- Costs are quoted as fixed-price packages by stage: investigation and lodgement, then an internal review request, then AFCA or court if the insurer maintains a refusal.
- Most of the value is created at lodgement, because most TPD claims are decided on the papers rather than in a hearing.
- Disbursements can be funded for you. Interest accrues daily at 16% per annum and is repaid from your benefit at the end.
If a medical condition has stopped you working, a TPD claim may be the largest single payment you ever receive. It is also the claim type where legal costs work least like people expect.
This guide explains how costs work on a superannuation TPD claim, and in particular the one structural difference that separates TPD from every other injury claim we run. If you want the general mechanics of conditional costs agreements first, the no win, no fee explainer covers uplift fees, disbursement funding and your rights. This page is the TPD specifics.
The difference that changes everything: nobody else contributes
In a WorkCover or TAC claim, the insurer commonly pays a contribution towards your legal costs. That contribution is partial, but it is real, and it reduces what comes out of your compensation. We publish those figures in our WorkCover costs guide, where the insurer’s contribution is a meaningful part of the arithmetic.
In a superannuation TPD claim there is usually no such contribution at all.
The reason is structural. A TPD claim is a claim on an insurance policy held inside your superannuation. There is no negligent party, no defendant ordered to pay your costs, and no statutory scheme funding a contribution. Unless the matter reaches court and a costs order is made in your favour, the anticipated recovery on a TPD claim is nil.
That single difference changes the economics completely, and it is the reason we set out costs in writing before you commit rather than after.
What counts as winning a TPD claim
Every conditional costs agreement has to define a successful outcome. In our TPD agreement, it means receiving payment of your insured benefit by any of:
- the insurer accepting your claim
- settlement
- court judgment
Note that the first one is the most common. Most successful TPD claims are simply accepted by the insurer on the strength of the evidence lodged. There is no hearing, no courtroom, and often no dispute at all. Getting the lodgement right is most of the work.
Fixed-price packages, quoted before you sign
Rather than an open-ended hourly estimate, we quote a fixed-price package for the stage your claim is at. Each package sets out professional fees, disbursements, any anticipated recovery, and what you would actually pay.
TPD claims run in stages, and our packages follow them:
- Claim investigation and lodgement. Finding every super fund you have held, obtaining the policy terms for each, establishing which definition applies and from what date, assembling the medical and vocational evidence, and lodging.
- Investigation, lodgement and review request. The above, plus challenging the insurer’s decision internally where a claim is declined.
- AFCA complaint or court proceedings. Where the insurer maintains a refusal. These are quoted individually, and you receive the package estimate before you decide whether to continue.
You get the figures for your stage in writing before you sign anything. We would rather you made the decision with the numbers in front of you.
The uplift fee, and the legal ceiling
Because a firm running your claim conditionally carries the risk of doing months of work and being paid nothing, Victorian law allows an uplift fee on a successful outcome.
Ours is 25%. Two things are worth knowing about that number.
First, it is 25% of our professional fees, not of your payout. It is not a share of your benefit.
Second, 25% is the legal maximum in Victoria. No firm here can charge more. If you are comparing firms, ask, because some charge less.
While we are on it: a lawyer taking a percentage of your compensation is a contingency fee, and it is unlawful in Victoria for litigious matters, with a narrow exception for court-approved class actions. If someone offers to run your TPD claim for a third of the payout, that is not a competitive offer. It is an unlawful one.
Disbursements, and how they are funded
Disbursements are the real expenses of running a claim: medical and specialist reports, records from treating doctors and employers, and barristers’ fees where required.
You have two options.
Pay them as they arise. This costs the least overall.
Use our disbursement funding provider. We arrange it and you sign nothing extra. Interest accrues daily at 16% per annum, is added to the balance monthly, and is repaid from your benefit.
That rate is not trivial, and we would rather you read it here than discover it at settlement. TPD claims can run for many months, so the interest is a real figure. If you can fund disbursements yourself you will keep more of your payout. If you cannot, the funding is what makes the claim possible, and that is the trade.
If your claim is unsuccessful
You pay nothing for our work.
You also do not pay for any disbursements we funded on your behalf through our funding provider. On an unsuccessful TPD claim, those are not passed on to you.
Two qualifications, stated plainly:
- If you end the agreement partway through, before any successful outcome, disbursements incurred to that point do become payable.
- If a matter reaches court and is unsuccessful, there is a possibility the other side may seek a contribution to their costs. If that risk becomes live in your matter, we will tell you before it does and explain your options. Most TPD claims never reach that point, because most are decided on the papers.
Why the lodgement is where the money is
It is worth understanding why the largest package sits at the investigation and lodgement stage rather than at the dispute end.
A TPD claim is decided by an insurer reading documents. There is no hearing where you explain yourself. The insurer applies the wording of your policy to the evidence in front of it, and the definition it applies, particularly whether your policy uses an “any occupation” or “own occupation” test, decides the outcome.
That means the work that wins a TPD claim happens before lodgement: finding every policy you hold, establishing the correct date of disablement, and commissioning medical evidence that answers the exact question your policy asks rather than describing your condition in general terms.
Claims that are lodged thinly get declined, and a declined claim costs more to fix than it would have cost to lodge properly.
Your rights, whoever you instruct
Under Victorian law your costs agreement must be in writing and signed, and you have the right to:
- Discuss and negotiate the agreement before signing
- Get independent legal advice before you sign
- Cancel within five business days, the cooling off period
- End the agreement at any time by written notice, noting that after the cooling off period you may owe costs even if you do not win
- Ask us to negotiate costs with any barrister we brief for you
- Receive an itemised bill at no extra cost, if you ask within 30 days
- Take a costs dispute to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner
Questions worth asking any firm about a TPD claim
- Is there any costs recovery from the insurer in a TPD claim? (The honest answer is usually no.)
- What is your uplift fee, as a percentage?
- Do you use a disbursement funder, and at what interest rate?
- Will you search for policies in super funds I have forgotten about?
- What happens to costs if my claim is declined and we go to AFCA?
- If I lose, what will I owe, at worst?
Any firm worth instructing will answer all six without hesitation.
Talk to us
If you have stopped working because of illness or injury, or a TPD claim has already been declined, the free claim check takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing. If we think you have a claim worth running, you will get the package figures in writing before you commit to anything.
Read more about superannuation TPD claims, or about what no win, no fee actually means.
This article is general information about how legal costs work on superannuation TPD claims in Victoria. It is not legal advice about your circumstances, and the arrangements described are ours rather than the industry’s. Package figures are confirmed in writing before you sign a costs agreement.
