We are leading experts in the handling of historical and contemporary child sexual abuse cases for institutional defendants. Unlike many firms practising today in this area, we have significant experience in this field, having been acting in these matters since 2006.
We handle historical abuse matters for one of the largest insurers in the Australian market, for government agencies as well as for community groups, religious organisations across all faiths as well as leading independent schools. Our firm has acted in some of the leading decided cases in this field, since the Royal Commission. We have an Australia-wide practice in this area.
Our expertise extends to insurance policy disputes and advice regarding coverage for abuse claims, including under contemporary and historical insurance policies. Our experience includes:
- Handling high volumes of historical claims (1960s-1980s) for a large community youth organisation. We have resolved many of these cases without the need for litigation and in accordance with ethical guidelines instituted by our client.
- Advising on insurance and reinsurance policy response on a portfolio-wide basis for certain tranches of claims against religious organisations.
- Acting in legally ground-breaking decisions including the first permanent stay granted to an institutional defendant in a historical abuse claim (The Council of Trinity Grammar School v Anderson [2019] NSWCA 292).
- We have also acted for institutions in recent published trial and appellate decisions concerning important issues in the abuse field, including:
- MXS2 v Georges River Grammar School formerly known as St Paul’s Choir School [2024] NSWSC 893 (and prior case – Stay and recovery of costs)
- BTM1 v Scout Association of Australia New South Wales Branch [2023] NSWSC 431 (Stay where defendant unable to respond to particularised negligence and alleged delegation of role)
- QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited V BB [2022] WASCA 61 (knowledge and reasonable precautions)
- Smith v The Council of Trinity Grammar School [2022] NSWCA 93 (Stay where alleged perpetrator deceased)
- Advice on:
- Mandatory reporting compliance
- Protocols for sharing the cost of claims, where insurance is limited or where multiple entities have had responsibility for operation of the relevant institution.
- Responding to Redress Scheme claims
- Undertaking confidential, privileged and compliant investigations into suspicious or concerning circumstances