contributory negligencePage 3

• Litigation & law practice

  Likely lad creates hostel havoc: Civil Liability Act no bar to "battery" suit

  An aggressive 24 yr old British tourist injured during an arrest in the Roma St backpacker precinct has recorded a compensation win against the employer of an over zealous security guard but was penalised in damages for his "poor…

  30 May 2012
• Litigation & law practice

  Glaring errors absent in remote rest-stop trip damages payout

  It took two trials and as many appeals before three judges, last week finally put Sonia Littlejohn's bitterly contested compensation award against the Julia Creek Town & Country Club beyond further dispute.

  28 February 2012
• Litigation & law practice

  Sidewalk straddler smacked: $124k for pedestrian wing mirror blow

  The Supreme Court this month ruled that pedestrians have every right to stroll on a roadway surface, awarding compensation to a Rockhampton teenager who had been swiped by the wing mirror of a passing van.

  24 February 2012
• Litigation & law practice

  Court excuses car owner from $200k liability because parent there to make joyride call

  After Christmas day lunch in 2005, 17-year-old learner driver Debbie-Jo Simpson got permission to take a farm vehicle for a drive with her brother Sam.

  18 October 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Unpaid helper wins $250k for tree-lopping fall: damages to cushion labour market risk

  A volunteer tree-trimmer has held a $250,000 damages verdict after the homeowner he offered to help failed to convince an appellate court that no duty of care was owed because the assistance given was unpaid.

  23 August 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Jack-knifing trailer kills on single lane bridge: Suncorp keeps most $ but loses on costs

  The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that a "stoic" plaintiff awarded $200,000 for the death of her 66-year-old workaholic husband should also recover indemnity costs after beating her earlier open offer to accept half that sum.

  24 July 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Insurer intoxicated after pedestrian hit on appeal: take a further 20% off

  Allianz failed to overturn a $160,000 running down verdict on the grounds the trial judge had engaged in unsupported speculation by relying on her “own experience in life” to conclude that its insured driver had failed to keep a…

  24 July 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Taxi abandons drunk passenger "on road to Jericho": QBE picks up bulk of $760k tab for widow

  A landmark judgment that traverses multiple aspects of the law of negligence this week delivered more than $760,000 to a Gold Coast social worker following her intoxicated partner’s dumping out of the back door of a Regent Taxi…

  19 May 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  The law of roundabouts explained by Court of Appeal

  The vexed question of who has to do what on traffic roundabouts came before the highest court of the state last week by way of an appeal by Suncorp concerning peak hour comings and goings in a Mackay suburb.

  16 March 2011
• Legal profession

  Broken neck from dive into Fitzroy River: "high" risk known to council

  The Supreme Court has ruled on the claim of a 17-year-old student who sustained quadriplegia in September 2002 when his head struck the river bed during after-school play resulting in $5 million agreed damages.

  13 March 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Taxi cab confession costly: Client’s claim not filed because of poor prospects

  It began in the taxi feeder rank at Brisbane airport in October 2002 when the driver was enjoying a lull and was eating a banana at the time he stepped into a hole in the kerb and injured his right shoulder.

  5 February 2011
• Litigation & law practice

  Probable improbables: Driller takes on liability share in fall down unsafe Newcrest mine shaft

  A seriously injured mine-worker overcame "improbable" facts "that might have been so obscure that no conclusions could be drawn", to defeat the combined resistance of his employer Downer EDI and mine-owner Newcrest, in a…

  30 December 2010

Case notes explain decisions in other people’s cases. They are general information, not legal advice, and every claim turns on its own facts.