Public Liability and Construction

• Acting in defence of construction contractors including building, scaffolding, formwork, painting, carpenters, electrical, demolition and product installers in personal injury claims for injuries suffered to non-employee workers on construction sites with such claims generally involving various contractual, indemnity and insurance issues.
• Successfully defending the head contractor in a claim for personal injury damages where the plaintiff fell from height and was impaled on steel reinforcement.
• Acting for head contractors in sensitive personal injury and compensation to relatives claims arising from fatalities on construction sites with related SafeWork prosecutions.
• Acting for sporting associations and recreational service providers in personal injury claims, ranging from small claims to catastrophic injuries and fatalities.
• Acting for insurers of a sporting organisation in sensitive compensation to relatives claims arising from fatalities and injuries to participants in events.
• Defending property owners, managing agents, strata managers, hotels, clubs, security providers, restaurants, maintenance providers and cleaners against personal injury and property damage claims.

Mining

• Acting for a coal mine in defence of a brain injury claim suffered by labour hire worker when large boulder was dropped into tray of truck by a digger operated by an employee of the mine.
• Acting for the owner/operator of a diamond mine in a personal injury claim by a labour hire worker who alleges he was exposed to crystalline silica dust whilst working at the mine.
• Acting for a large coal mine operator in defence of a number of personal injury claims by labour hire workers who allege injuries of varying degrees sustained during the course of their work at mines across NSW.
• Acting in Supreme Court personal injury proceedings where a worker suffered catastrophic crush injuries to his hand when disconnecting a pipe with four other workers each employed by different labour hire companies. Proceedings commenced against the mine operator and the four separate labour hire companies.

Product Liability

• Defending manufacturers and suppliers in product liability injury and property damage claims involving consumable products and ingredients, paint products, recreational equipment, electrical products and mechanical componentry. These claims involve the interaction between the Trade Practices Act/Australian Consumer Law and Civil Liability Act and often include advising on recovery prospects against foreign manufacturers.

Workers Liability

• Defending workers compensation recovery actions under section 151Z of the Workers Compensation Act.

Coverage

• Providing coverage advice on complex public/product liability wordings, annual construction and project-specific policies, contract works policies, Industrial Special Risks cover and professional indemnity policies.
• Successfully defending insurers in a claim by a plaintiff who suffered catastrophic injuries when he dived from a houseboat into shallow water with the Supreme Court finding that the claim was excluded by the watercraft exclusion in the policy.