Case notes by topic
At work
Case notes on injuries at work: unsafe systems of work, falls, machinery, manual handling and workers’ compensation.
Newest first
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Picture hiddenConstruction accidentEmployer liable after steel beams crush a worker’s foot & ankle
The NSW Supreme Court awarded a former labourer $1,030,742.67 after an unstable steel beam crushed his foot at a construction site. The judgment examines the employer's duty, causation and lost earning capacity.
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Picture hiddenAdequate system of workFall from own ladder: Hail damage assessor wins $1.38mil
The District Court of Queensland found Ezy Projects Pty Ltd failed to provide a safe system of work when an experienced building-insurance assessor fell from a ladder during post-hailstorm roof inspections.
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Picture hiddenFactory accidentVisible factory danger not an obvious risk of injury
The NSW Supreme Court found Visy and DME equally liable after a DME worker struck his head on a low-hanging pipe at Visy’s Tumut paper mill. Damages remain to be finalised after a 20% reduction for contributory negligence.
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Picture hiddenAdequate system of workWorkshop’s system of work hazard not of landlord’s making
The NSW Court of Appeal explains why a commercial landlord's duty to repair a defective ramp did not make it liable for a worker's manual-handling injury.
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Picture hiddenMining injuryCoal mine at fault for elbow crush injury to hired-in worker
The NSW Supreme Court awarded David Ward $3.59 million after finding that Appin Colliery’s operator was liable for an underground vehicle accident that severely injured his arm.
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Picture hiddenConstruction accidentOngoing work vulnerability aided by kindly employer yields $125k earnings buffer
The Queensland District Court awarded Alistair Lawson $173,658.70 after accepting that a fractured fibula continued to cause leg weakness, limping and a modest future disadvantage in the labour market.
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Picture hiddenMetal fabrication injuryVideo footage refutes workshop accident severe impairment claim
Within days of arriving in Sydney from Fiji on a student visa in January 2018, Abdul Tazleem began began looking for work as an automotive and diesel mechanic.
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Picture hiddenLogistics worker injuryBetween Two States: The Cross‑Border Life of a Truckie
Christopher Reynolds routinely set out from his home in Edenhope in Victoria at around 3:00 pm to make his way 40 km across the border into South Australia to the trucking depot at Hynam.
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Picture hiddenOffice worker injuryParalegal fails to resuscitate law firm sexual harassment bid
A legal assistant in her early thirties launched two different sexual harassment proceedings against a law firm that prided itself on its governance and compliance and five years later, started a third.
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Picture hiddenMetal fabrication injuryCutting corners: worker gets $250k for shonky system of work
Jason Jorgensen was 39 when he walked into a new job at a metal fabrication workshop in Bundaberg on a March morning in 2018, an experienced boilermaker with more than two decades in the trade, but new to the business of building…
- Factory accident
Back breaking work breaks worker’s back
Heavy awkward lifting is often a source of workplace injury particularly in materials fabrication workshops.
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Picture hiddenFirst respondersTwo separate accidents, one $635k win
When Daniel Murphy pulled over on the Gateway Motorway in 2017, he couldn’t have imagined the chain of events that would leave him physically injured, professionally derailed, and at the centre of personal injury compensation…
Case notes explain decisions in other people’s cases. They are general information, not legal advice, and every claim turns on its own facts.
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