State Compensation

Workers’ compensation. Dust and diseases.

When workers’ compensation cases hit the headlines, it can be challenging.  We’ve got teams of local specialists ready to take on the complexities of a case, whether it’s impairment applications, serious injury applications, compensation claims, common law claims, issues over return to work and employment obligations, or recoveries. 

Our priority is protecting our clients’ public image, so we offer high level board advice and act as a media liaison point. But we can also fly under the radar, conducting risk analysis and advising on resolution tactics from behind the scenes. 

When our clients are designing and implementing claims systems or revamping tail management strategies, we support them; we identify legal implications beyond the claims and build strategies that protect our clients from additional exposures.

We conduct audits and reviews of reserves. We’ll guide our clients through the transition from state-based to federal schemes or to self-insurance.  Dust disease claims are particularly delicate, with different nuances around limitation periods and damages in each jurisdiction. Malignant claims now routinely involve damages awards of more than $500,000, so we’ve created dedicated teams with state-specific expertise in this highly specialist area. 

We know our way around the Dust Diseases Tribunal, dealing with its highly specialised, complex, medical and legal questions. Insurers often ask our advice on dust diseases and other toxic torts on behalf of the companies they are defending.  We’ve defended claims arising from exposure to asbestos and other toxic substances, including welding fumes, coal dust, aluminium particles, hard metal dusts and fumes, silica, latex and wood dust.
 
Working for some of Australia’s largest self-insured corporations, we have experience in Supreme and District Courts of QLD and WA, the District Court of SA, the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Supreme Court of NT.

What the market says

Winner—Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards—Insurance Team of the Year, 2022
Winner—Australasian Lawyer Australian Law Awards—Insurance Specialist Firm of the Year, 2022
Finalist—Australasian Lawyer Australian Law Awards—Insurance Specialist Firm of the Year, 2023