Bad news for lawyers suing airlines over “economy-class syndrome” (see Dec. 13-14, 2000): an Australian court of appeal has disallowed a test case against Qantas and British Airways over the deep vein thrombosis suffered by a passenger after a long flight. Brian William Povey, a Sydney businessman, “had alleged that flight conditions — including a confined and restricted physical environment, impediments to getting out of his seat, a lack of warning about the risk of DVT, and the supply of alcohol — had caused his injury.” (Peter Gregory, “DVT damages claims in doubt”, Melbourne Age, Dec. 24). The judgment was consistent with a court decision in Britain; a U.S. federal judge in San Francisco, on the other hand, has allowed such claims to proceed (see Aug. 16). Update Sept. 12: high court agrees to review case.
Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Update: Aussie drunk driver loses case
Updating our Jul. 30 report: “A woman has lost a case in which she sued a pub where she had been drinking shortly before she crashed her car. …Justice Gerald Cripps said the defendants did not have a duty of care ‘to protect the plaintiff from the consequences of her own inebriation’.” (“Judge finds against drunk driver who sued hotel”, AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 18)(opinion in Parrington v Hotelcorp Pty Ltd & Ors, New South Wales Supreme Court)
Oz reforms: no tears for laid-off lawyers
“Lawyers losing their jobs because of the NSW government’s clampdown on public liability claims have received little sympathy from Premier Bob Carr. The government’s tort law reforms have reportedly forced the closure of a whole floor of lawyers at one Sydney firm. And NSW Bar Association president Ian Harrison has warned that up to a third of barristers could lose their jobs.
“But the premier gave the lawyers short shrift, saying he would rather see money going to workers than lining legal eagles’ pockets. ‘Australia would have been put out of work if we hadn’t reformed the tort laws and reined in this culture of litigation in NSW,’ he said.” (“Lawyers get no sympathy”, AAP/Melbourne Age, Dec. 5).
“The Civil Liability (Personal Responsibility) Act and its amendments introduced caps and thresholds on compensation and shifted the balance towards greater personal responsibility to avoid long and expensive court cases. The result has been a sharp drop in casework for solicitors and barristers specialising in personal injury cases.” (Alex Mitchell, “Get over it, Carr tells jobless lawyers”, Sun Herald/Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 7).
Australia: his revenge on society
In one of Australia’s most notorious mass murders, Julian Knight shot dead seven people and wounded 19 others in Hoddle Street, Melbourne in 1987. Knight was committed to prison where he developed into an inveterate filer of legal complaints which “have cost the Justice Department about [A]$250,000 in staff time and external legal expenses in the past two years alone”, having pursued over that period 28 appeals as well as numerous freedom of information requests. (Ian Munro, “Hoddle Street mass killer faces court curb”, Melbourne Age, Nov. 10).
Updates (blog division)
Our Oct. 28 entry, “Slower saint-making”, about how fear of being sued has slowed down efforts to advance Australia’s Mary MacKillop toward canonization in the Catholic church, has been mentioned on numerous sites and is featured in the latest Carnival of the Capitalists, which rounds up noteworthy business and economic posts. Economic commentator Donald Luskin has withdrawn his speech-chilling demand letter (see Oct. 30) and has issued a curiously worded joint statement with anonyblogger Atrios attributing their dispute to “a series of misunderstandings” and putting it behind them (Kevin Drum, Nov. 4). And Curmudgeonly Clerk (Nov. 2, Nov. 3, Nov. 5) has made himself the one-stop source for information on the seedy saga (see Oct. 31) of how a British reality TV crew organized male contestants to go on camera vying for the affections of “Miriam”, a curvaceous gal who turned out not to be a gal at all, with results that are pregnant at least legally. Update May 26: cases settled.
Disappearing Australians
Lifeguards: “One of Victoria’s most popular surf beaches may be unpatrolled this summer as its lifesaving club struggles to pay the huge public liability insurance costs. The Torquay club will not put lifesavers on the beach this season if the State Government does not pass legislation protecting members and the club from litigation.” (Stephen Moynihan, “Popular beach may have no lifesavers this season”, Melbourne Age, Nov. 2). Pediatric surgeons: “Eighteen orthopedic surgeons and obstetricians have quit public hospitals in Sydney in the past week because of the Government’s medical indemnity charge.” (Ruth Pollard, “Children’s surgeons quit, more will follow”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 2). Rural obstetricians (Lucy Beaumont, “Insurance fear on rural births”, Melbourne Age, May 6). See David Little, “Left untreated, the indemnity system will cause more suffering”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 9; Richard Ackland, “In a row between doctor and lawyer, you know who the politician will call”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 31)
Slower saint-making
“If canonization of Australia’s Mary MacKillop, who died in 1909, is taking a relatively long time, compared to that of Mother Teresa, six years dead, part of the reason is that Indians are less litigious.” Among legal fears that might slow down the process at various stages: “A doctor who treated an individual might be miffed by claims that the cure had no medical explanation. There is also privacy legislation, which might be referred to by relatives objecting to church investigators nosing into the departed one’s affairs. … According to Sister Maria Casey, who is handling the processing of Mother Mackillop, ‘it is not very easy these days because of threats of litigation'”. (Malcolm Brown, “Saint? Call the lawyers”, Melbourne Age, Oct. 27; longer version, Sydney Morning Herald) (& welcome Eugene Volokh readers; he says nice things about us)(& welcome Carnival of the Capitalists readers).
Dark highlights, courtesy Oz legal aid
Australia: “An application by Victorian triple murderer Paul Denyer to wear women’s make-up in prison was helped by taxpayer-funded Legal Aid, the state government said today. The 120kg killer, branded one of the most dangerous criminals in Victoria … lodged an appeal with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after his complaint of gender identity discrimination was rejected by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) in August.” (“Legal Aid helped make-up bid”, AAP/Melbourne Age, Oct. 15). See update Jan. 10.
Welcome Sydney Morning Herald readers
“Increasingly, Australians live in a society in which it is always someone else’s fault; in which perpetrators masquerade as victims; in which personal responsibility has been replaced, all too frequently, by a readiness to lie, to sue, to redirect blame or, worse, to find scapegoats. … It is a cruel irony of modern life that the only people who can regularly be relied on to accept — indeed, to claim — responsibility for their actions are terrorist bombers.” Cites a certain website where “many examples of the lunacy of litigation are to be found”. Our special section on Australian cases, covering stories since June of this year, is here; for stories before that date, use our search function. Our section on personal responsibility is here, with older items here. (John Huxley, “Not my fault”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 4)
Overreading mammograms
American women who get routine mammograms are more likely to be called back for additional tests than women in other countries, even though such caution does not result in more cases of breast cancer being found, a new study has found. ‘Higher callback rates would be fine if we had evidence we’re getting more bang for the buck,’ said Dr. Joann Elmore, lead author of research published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. ‘But we’re not.'” The study found that “American mammographers do not detect any more cases of breast cancer, nor do they detect cancer at earlier stages, than their counterparts in such countries as Australia, the Netherlands, Italy or Britain.” They do, however, have a much higher false-positive rate: “According to one of Elmore’s earlier studies, one in every two U.S. women will have at least one false positive after 10 years of annual screening. … the authors say they have adjusted for most of the other factors that could lead to higher false-positive rates and hint strongly that America’s litigious culture is implicated.” (“Callbacks don’t increase detection”, Chicago Tribune/San Diego Network of Care, Sept. 17). See also Nov. 2, 2000; May 12, 2003; “Study suggests false-positive mammogram results linked to radiologists? experience”, UW School of Medicine Online News, Sept. 27, 2002 (earlier Elmore research).