Most people will be aware of public liability cases given the significant media coverage in this area. A combination of the HIH crisis, September 11 and some what I would describe as “over the top cases” led to what was commonly called the “Public Liability Crisis”. For those involved in the industry there had been no doubt that HIH had been aggressively discounting within the insurance industry. This led to more responsible insurance companies having to respond as best they could by lowering premiums.

The September 11 attack had significant impacts world wide on the insurance industry. In addition to this there had been a number of cases before the Courts which were generally accepted as having taken the concept of public liability too far. This led to the introduction of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002.

One of the main purposes of this Act was to ensure that people who are injured gave notice to the insurer as soon as possible. It also provided a scheme where claims were more likely to be settled at an earlier stage without the necessity of going to Court.

In addition to this there have been a number of cases which have recently gone before the High Court where the scope for “over the top cases” have been significantly reduced. It does seem that this area of the law is now starting to settle down.
The Queensland Government has recently introduced “the Civil Liability Act which has further limited liability in this area.

It has reduced defendents exposure to liability where there has been obvious risks of injury.

It has also generally reduced the risks of liability to public authorities.

There are also new notification provisions for children which must be carefully considered.

Danny Towne is member of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association and is a Consultant with Rod Madsen solicitor.

Part 2

Last week I spoke of the significant changes in this area of law and some of the reasons that public liability insurance premiums had increased.

It is important to remember that one of the main reasons this area of law has developed is to provide a safe community. A person is not entitled to compensation merely because they have suffered an injury.

Generally, in the public arena occupiers must take reasonable care so as not to injure people that enter into the public area. The laws of public liability are often aimed to stop defective construction within a public area. Often there are standards set out which local authorities or people in charge of public areas must conform to.

Another main area of public liability law is to make sure that owners and occupiers of premises take reasonable care to keep their premises safe. A common example of this is in the case of supermarkets – they must implement a system to make sure that they are continually checking to make sure that there has not been food spillage and that if there has, that it has been cleaned up.

As to what is reasonable, it will significantly depend on the circumstances of each case. Some of the things that would be taken into account is how many customers are at the premises at any given time and what goods are being sold on the premises.

This area of the law has largely changed in view of the recent events that I discussed last week Nonetheless, if a local authority or a person in charge of a public area has been made aware of a defect and have continued to ignore it then a claim is still likely to be successful.

Danny Towne is member of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association and is a Consultant with Rod Madsen solicitor.

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