Today, the remaining provisions of the Personal Injuries Proceedings and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022 (the Amendment Act) came into force. These amend the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002, the Legal Profession Act 2007 and the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. The amendments, together with the provisions that were already in force from the Amendment Act, are aimed at banning claim farming practices in Queensland. Queensland is the first Australian state to legislate against the practice.

Under the new provisions, there are new law practice certificate (LPC) requirements for personal injury claims and workers compensation claims. Claimants’ solicitors will be required to provide LPCs at various stages of the pre-court claims. An LPC is required to state that the supervising principal and each associate of the law practice has not paid a claim farmer for the claim, and that they have not approached, solicited or induced the claimant to make a claim. It is an offence to not provide an LPC when required, or to sign and give a false or misleading LPC. The LPC required under PIPA can be found here.

The amendments also include a requirement for a notice of claim to be accompanied by a certificate signed by the claimant. A copy of the claimant’s certificate can be found here.

Please contact any of our senior General Liability specialists in Brisbane if you’d like to discuss how these new amendments will operate in practice.