Hit and run claims, in plain English
When the at-fault driver can't be identified — they drove off, you didn't get a plate, the car came from behind in a way you couldn't see — your injury claim still runs. NSW law has a fallback insurer called the Nominal Defendant, funded by a small levy on every NSW green slip, that picks the claim up when there's no identifiable insurer to pay.
Your claim runs the same way it would against any other CTP insurer. The Nominal Defendant pays your statutory benefits and any damages you're owed.
What you need to have done
For an unidentified-driver claim, the Nominal Defendant scheme expects you to have made reasonable efforts to identify the driver. That's not as scary as it sounds — it just means you didn't shrug it off.
What counts as reasonable:
- Report it to police. The most important single step. Get a police event number. Online reporting via NSW Police works for most non-emergency hit and runs; for serious crashes, call 000.
- Ask nearby witnesses. Anyone at the scene who might have seen something. Get names and numbers where you can.
- Check CCTV and dashcam. Nearby shops, service stations, traffic cameras, residential doorbell cameras. Ask early — most footage is overwritten within days or weeks.
- Note what you saw. Make of car, colour, any partial plate, direction of travel, time of day. The more detail, the better the chance the driver gets identified later.
You don't have to find the driver. You have to show you tried.
Two common hit and run scenarios
Driver fled the scene
You were hit by another vehicle, they didn't stop. You called police, you might have a partial plate or a vehicle description. Your CTP injury claim runs against the Nominal Defendant. Property damage is a different conversation — see below.
Hit while parked
You came back to your car and someone had hit it. No note, no contact details. For property damage this is almost always your own comprehensive insurance (and your excess depends on whether you can identify the at-fault driver). For injury — usually irrelevant for a parked-car hit, but if you were inside the car at the time, the Nominal Defendant path opens.
The 28-day rule still applies
Get the claim in within 28 days of the crash and your statutory benefits backdate to day one. Submit after that and benefits usually only start from the day you got it in.
For hit and run claims specifically, getting the claim in early matters extra because the scheme expects you to have made the search for the driver while leads were fresh. CCTV footage gets overwritten. Witnesses forget. Police investigations cool. The sooner you call, the better the file looks. See the 28-day rule.
Property damage — separate problem
The Nominal Defendant covers your injury claim, but not your car. That's a quirk of NSW law that catches people out. For property damage in a hit and run:
- Your own comprehensive insurance is usually the cleanest path.
- If you only have third-party insurance, you may be exposed for the repair cost or write-off.
- If police later identify the driver and they're uninsured, the property side gets harder — recovering personally from an uninsured driver is rarely worth the effort.
See property damage claim NSW.
What we do for you
One phone call. We take the details of the crash, help you make sure the police report is properly recorded, follow up on CCTV and witness leads while they're still fresh, submit the Nominal Defendant claim inside 28 days, and run the statutory benefits and any damages claim end-to-end.
Take the short check at /check, or call (02) 7238 7379 and a real person picks up.