Tracey Dodimead's life was upended when a driver using their mobile phone rammed into the back of her car on the roundabout of Anzac Parade and Parkes Way in 2011.
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The injury to her wrist meant she could no longer teach hairdressing, a career she'd loved for 35 years.
And while Ms Dodimead had to wait five years for compensation under the ACT's current compulsory third party insurance scheme, she would not be eligible for a quality of life payout under the new scheme endorsed by Canberra's citizens' jury last Sunday.
The new model sets out a series of defined benefits, available to all regardless of fault, and higher benefits able to be pursued in court by those injured through the negligence of someone else.
It was the option with the most generous benefits and lowest premiums of between $385 and $465 a year, but also the tightest restrictions on who could sue for common law benefits.
The model uses "whole-of-person impairments" assessments to determine to what degree a person is injured.
Now only those with impairment of at least 10 per cent can pursue longer term treatment, income support and a quality of life benefit up to $500,000 through the common law system.
Those with at least 5 per cent impairment can apply for quality of life payments of up to $350,000, regardless of fault.
The crash caused bruising of Ms Dodimead's lunate bones and a tear to her triangular fibrocartilage complex, which left her with chronic pain and dysfunction.
It meant she could no longer teach and she was without an income until her settlement in 2016.
However Ms Dodimead's injuries were assessed by her insurer's doctor as 1 per cent whole-of-person impairment.
"If it was 1 per cent for my injury I can't even imagine what 10 per cent would be. For me this injury was 100," Ms Dodimead said.
"I went from a career person who was financially secure, who had a financial plan, to nothing.
"I was a hairdresser for 35 years at that point and had been teaching since 2005. I had a very clear career path and even in retirement I would have been able to make money if I wanted to.
"This injury stopped all that. I had to have my 21-year-old son help me get dressed in the morning. It's been seven years and I'm still in pain every moment of every day."
An ACT government spokeswoman pointed out under the new scheme, Ms Dodimead would have had access to income support and funds for treatment straight away.
However Ms Dodimead said she began physio three days after the accident - treatment that was paid for by her insurer and later taken out of her payout.
Ms Dodimead's injuries were assessed under AMA4 guidelines while the ACT CTP scheme will draw on a modified version of AMA5.
The government spokeswoman said assessment under AMA5 could result in a higher rating than the same injury under AMA4, however it would depend on the type of injury.
"AMA5 (modified) includes an adjustment for activities of daily living when calculating [impairment] percentages for some injuries, for example those related to the lumbar spine, thoracic spine and cervical spine," she said.
"This means there is some adjustment made for the impact of injuries on different people's lives."
But Walt Hawkins, who has been a compulsory third-party insurance lawyer for more than 30 years, said people "don't fit textbook definitions".
"A person doing clerical work may do that with their arm injured, a person who works as a manual labourer will not," Mr Hawkins said.
"People may not necessarily have a permanent impairment but it can impact on their career and quality of life for a number of years.
"What it's effectively done is take compensation away from people who've been injured by the fault of someone else and direct that to people who've been injured by their own action and at the same time they're actually going to paying out less overall. It's not a great saving for what we're losing," Mr Hawkins said.
However the government spokeswoman said about 40 per cent more people would be covered as a result of the scheme.
"The jury heard from medical and healthcare consumer expert witnesses that full and early access to treatment can help people avoid longer term injuries that permanently reduce their quality of life," she said.
"The jury's final report particularly noted the importance of shifting the CTP scheme's focus from large settlements to early recovery."
But Ms Dodimead said her payout let her have treatment that she felt worked better for her, rather than what her insurer dictated, and allowed her to start a new life in Broken Hill.
"That settlement doesn't cover all the years without income, all the pain, all the medication and all the psychological issues that come with that," Ms Dodimead said.
