The Age - May 19 2003, By Misha Ketchell
Traditional allies of the Labor Party have combined in an angry attack on the
Bracks Government over what they claim is a plan to strip fundamental legal
rights from Victorians. Labor law firms, civil liberties groups and the Law
Institute of Victoria are backing an expensive media campaign to try to
pressure the Government to dump its plan to resolve the medical
indemnity crisis.According to the labor law firms, the Government has been
secretly planning to remove the right to sue for pain and suffering from
people with minor injuries.Peter Gordon, a partner in Labor law firm
Slater & Gordon, yesterday said the plan was more draconian than
Jeff Kennett's removal of common law rights for injured workers in the
mid-1990s - a move that provoked angry street marches before it was
reversed by the Bracks Government.
With the backing of three other prominent law firms, Maurice Blackburn
Cashman, Holding Redlich and Ryan Carlisle Thomas, Mr Gordon yesterday
took out prime-time television and newspaper advertisements posing the
question: "Mr Bracks, who gave you the right to take away our rights?"
Mr Gordon said his firm would withdraw financial support from ALP,
which has amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in some years.
"But this means a lot more than just abandoning the party.
This means attacking the party. It means attacking the Government.
It means fighting these reforms," he said.
Mr Gordon said the legislation, due to be introduced in the next two weeks,
would remove the right to sue for pain and suffering from people who were
injured as a result of someone else's negligence but who suffered less than
5 per cent permanent incapacitation.
According to Mr Gordon the changes meant that if you were savagely
mauled by your neighbour's dog but fully recovered you would have no
right to sue. And if one of a man's testicles was mistakenly removed, but
he could still have sex, he also would not be able to sue the doctor for
pain and suffering.
Peter Redlich, chairman of Holding Redlich and a former ALP president, said:
"I think this is primarily a social justice issue. The principle of social justice is
that you look after the victim, not the perpetrator."
Michael Brett Young, managing partner of Maurice Blackburn Cashman,
said the planned reforms were draconian and unnecessary. "This is a knee-jerk
reaction," he said.
The ALP state conference yesterday passed a motion opposing any attempt
to remove the common law right of Victorians to sue for pain and suffering.
Greg Connellan, president of Liberty Victoria, said the proposed reforms
were a fundamental breach of civil liberties.
Bill O'Shea, president of the Law Institute of Victoria, said he had written to
Premier Steve Bracks warning against the move. "This is the removal of a
fundamental right to justice for all Victorians."
AMA Victorian President Mukesh Haikerwal played down the fears, saying
the law firms were scaremongers and that those seriously injured as result
of negligence would retain their rights. Mr Haikerwal said the reforms were
needed because the soaring cost of medical indemnity insurance was forcing
some doctors to give up practice.
A State Government spokesman yesterday confirmed the reforms would be
introduced into parliament in the next two weeks. He said the Government
faced a difficult task to come up with a solution that balanced competing
priorities.
Pain and suffering, but no money Cases where the right to sue may be lost:
A man is mauled by a neighbour's dog and spends weeks in hospital but later
recovers.
A boy is sexually abused by a priest and suffers psychological trauma but no
"permanent impairment".
A woman breaks her hip in the Arthurs Seat chair collapse but later
recovers.
A man has one of his testicles mistakenly removed by a doctor.
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