Insurance & Dispute Resolution

Our core civil litigation practice arises from being a member of the panel of solicitors to the Queensland Local Government Mutual Liability Pool (LGM).  The Pool was established in 1994, is managed by JLT, and consists of most Councils in Queensland who are insured for large public liability and professional indemnity claims under a common policy.

In our role as Pool lawyers, we are required to advise on, and therefore keep ourselves fully acquainted with, all developments in negligence and associated law generally and the law relating to local government liability.  This merely continues what has always been our practice as specialist local government legal advisers, pre-dating any major involvement in a formal insurance/liability operation.

At present, we hold instructions from Jardines/LGMS in relation to over 100 separate matters such as claims for damages for personal injury and claims for damages for economic loss consequent upon alleged negligent issuing of development approvals. 

We have developed top notch skills:

• defending claims made by developers arising out of errors in the subdivision approval process;
• providing advice on indemnity for a complex professional indemnity claim in relation to the contribution of public funding for works conducted by a property developer;
• providing advice to various Councils on development matters pertaining to flooding and storm surge, and the effect of climate change;
• drafting indemnity and insurance provisions in commercial contracts for local governments;
• providing advice to the LGAQ concerning proposed State government indemnity arrangements for local governments dealing with asbestos;
• delivering presentations to industry experts on liability issues affecting local governments;
• successfully (and rapidly) extricating JLT/LGMS from claims made against local governments arising from building certification of multi-storey building works;
• providing advice to JLT/LGMS on the interpretation of policy wording
• acting in the defence of and prosecuting claims for, defamation in a local government context;
• defending claims for psychiatric injury resulting from the death of family members.

Our litigation team also works extensively in rates and debt recovery, including the sale of land for overdue rates, as well as prosecutions and enforcement appeals, and industrial relations. 

For more information, go to our INSURANCE & DISPUTE RESOLUTION main page.