Case Studies

Case Study: One

Our client visited a night club in Qld. He was asked to hand in his expensive hat at reception. The hat disappeared before he could collect it and the club denied any liability. Even with police intervention the case was at a standstill. We referred the matter to QCAT and attended a teleconference due to the distances involved. We won the case and the club was ordered to pay full restitution to the client for the cost of the hat. Approximately $400.

Case Study: Two

Our clients received a surprise account in the mail for $66,000. Their son had been injured in the USA and spent 5 days in hospital. He didn’t have travel insurance to cover the costs. We took over negotiations with the hospital and after approximately 7 months we were delighted to advise our clients that the entire bill had been written off by the hospital’s charity board. Whilst investigating that matter we became aware that the clients had also claimed through a private accident insurance policy for the same incident. We offered to check the insurance company had paid everything that was due to the insured. They had not. Our client received a further $14000 from the private insurer.

Case Study: Three

Our client had paid income protection insurance for years. When she had a bout of illness which affected her cognitive functions. She couldn’t concentrate and remember things so couldn’t perform her normal duties so she submitted a claim. The insurance company denied her claim and insisted she be subjected to more examinations and tests to prove she was ill. This was the last stress our client needed at this testing time. We intervened and with a few emails were successful in attaining the full payment due to her of around $14,000 plus ongoing payments.

Case Study: Four

Our client had a water leak in their elevated rear yard. A plumber and the water authority both confirmed the leak. The clients then noticed the retaining wall at the rear of the yard and directly in front of the water leak was falling. They submitted a claim to their insurer to replace the wall which was damaged beyond repair. The wall falling was obviously a direct result of the insured event, the water leak. The insurance company engaged an engineer who stated that the wall was poorly designed and built and that the leak had only contributed to 25% of the fall. They offered 25% of the cost to replace the huge wall. We took over the case for the clients. After attempting to negotiate and sort the matter with the insurer who was extremely stubborn we asked our client to pay for their own engineer’s report. We were fairly certain we could win the case and the client was willing to risk $600 to gain approximately $30,000. It worked. Although we had to take the case all the way to the Ombudsman we eventually won a payout of 100% of the cost to replace the wall. That was an increased payout from $10,000 to $40,000.