Personal Injury

In historic institutional child abuse claims, we are continuing to see requests by some defendants for plaintiff’s solicitors to provide an independent solicitor certificate on settlement of the plaintiff’s claim. The certificates typically contain statements to the effect that the solicitor acting for the plaintiff has explained to the plaintiff the purport and effect of the settlement deed, the plaintiff appeared to have understood that advice, and that the deed was signed voluntarily.

The Supreme Court has recently issued the Institutional Liability List Case Management and Listing Update, with new case management procedures to better manage the very large number of new proceedings now being filed in this List.

It can be easy for parties in dispute to overlook limitation periods while settlement discussions are happening. This article covers some simple risk management measures parties can take to prevent their claim from being time barred and the practitioner also being faced with a professional negligence claim.

Effective litigation practitioners prepare well and prepare early. A recent judgement in the Supreme Court of Victoria reinforced this message when an application for adjournment of a trial date was met with an indemnity cost order against the solicitors seeking the adjournment.

When advising a claimant on a superannuation total and permanent disability (TPD) claim, telling them there could be tax implications when making a withdrawal after the claim is approved should be one of your key messages.

Practitioners are finding that some clients are insisting on doing parts of litigation matters themselves, primarily to save legal costs. If you are prepared to accept a limited retainer, you need to manage the risks.

Tactics are an essential part of mediations as practitioners seek to reach an outcome favourable to their clients. However, there are legal and ethical limits to how far practitioners can go in settlement negotiations. Practitioners in mediations should be mindful of the provisions of Part 2.3 of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic) and section 18 of Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cwlth), known as The Australian Consumer Law.

LPLC has received a number of claims arising out of practitioners missing time limits in workplace injury compensation matters and some of these claims have been from experienced practitioners. The practitioners have failed to comply with the time limits imposed by section134AB of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic) or section 335 of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic).