Queensland Floods Class Action Set to be Large Scale

Law firm Maurice Blackburn has announced that it intends to file a class action against the operators of the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams and the Queensland Government. The action is in relation to the January 2011 flood in South East Queensland. The class action will be for damages to individuals and businesses suffering economic loss or damage as a result of alleged negligent operation of the dams leading up to and during the flooding.

The class action will claim that the dam operators were negligent in:

• failing to use rainfall forecasts in making decisions about operating strategies; and

• failing to preserve a reasonable amount of the dams' storage capacity in order to provide optimum protection of urbanized areas from inundation.

The class action will claim that “this negligent conduct, in addition to other conduct, contributed significantly to the downstream flooding experienced in Brisbane and Ipswich”.

As with all class actions it will be brought by multiple persons against the same defendant, where each person's claim arises out of the same or related circumstances. According to Maurice Blackburn's announcement, the costs and risks of the action will be “fully underwritten by IMF” the largest and most successful litigation funder in Australia. If the action is successful, the costs of the proceedings, which will include expert evidence fees, legal costs and interest, will be shared across the class of people taking the action.

With thousands of Brisbane and Ipswich flood victims expected to join the class action against the Queensland government this could end up being one of the largest class actions ever prosecuted in Australia,

Read Maurice Blackburn Lawyers full announcement.
Read article.

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