Coroner's Court
The role of the Coroner's Court
The Coroner's role is to find out the cause of death and how it
occurred. The Coroner can also comment on and make recommendations
about public health or safety arising from the death.
An autopsy (detailed physical examination of the body) is
usually carried out to establish the cause of death. If the Coroner
decides to investigate, information about the death will be
collected by a Coroner's assistant or a police officer. The Inquest
is a public hearing conducted by the Coroner. At the Inquest
evidence is given about the person's death.
How Maurice Blackburn can help you at Coronial
Inquests
We have provided legal advice and representation to many
families who have lost loved ones. We represent families by
liaising with the Coroner's office on their behalf, preparing the
case to go to Inquest, and arranging for a barrister to represent
families at the Inquest. You do not need to be legally represented
(the Coroner's assistant can ask questions for you). However, in
our experience, Coroner's matters involving doctors and hospitals
can be complicated, and doctors and hospitals will be legally
represented. So it is in your interest to be represented also.
We have appeared for families at inquests into:
- deaths which occur as a result of a hospital or doctor's
failure to diagnose and treat a life-threatening illness or
condition
- deaths because of anaesthesia
- deaths involving the use of hospital bed restraints
- deaths because of failure to diagnose and treat meningitis,
and
- deaths resulting from prescription of excessive dosage of
medication.
Where a person dies as a result of medical negligence,
compensation may be payable to the deceased's dependent family
members. Compensation may be given to recognise the loss of
financial benefits that would have been received had the person not
died. In some cases, compensation can be given for emotional injury
(called 'nervous shock') suffered by the survivors, where family
members or those in a close relationship with the deceased have
suffered an emotional injury which goes beyond a normal grief
reaction to the extent that it constitutes a diagnosable
psychological injury.
Claims arising from the death of children may be brought by
parents, guardians or close relatives for 'nervous shock'. These
'nervous shock' claims require proof of negligence leading to death
and evidence of a recognised psychiatric disorder suffered as a
result of the death. Funeral costs and some other expenses may also
be recoverable.
FAQs about the Coroner's Court
How do I make a claim?
If you think you have a medical negligence claim, contact the
Maurice Blackburn Medical Negligence team. We will take a statement
from you about what has occurred and then provide you with a
preliminary assessment. If we believe you should proceed further
with your claim, we will then carry out an investigation of your
case. An investigation will involve obtaining your medical records
and reports from your treating doctors, if appropriate, then
obtaining an independent medical expert's opinion.
How much will it cost?
In medical negligence cases that we believe have merit, we will
conduct the investigation on a 'no win - no charge' basis.
This means you will only be charged profit costs in the event you
receive an award of damages and no profit costs will be charged if
the claim is not pursued after being investigated.
If proceedings are issued after investigating the claim and the
claim is successful, you will be charged for the costs of the
investigation and the legal work performed after issuing
proceedings. This will be a charge on the appropriate Court Scale,
and you will be given more information about this at the time when
the decision is made to issue proceedings. No costs are charged
unless you receive a settlement or award of compensation.
However, in medical negligence cases, we require you to pay for
the costs of the investigations, such as the fees charged by
doctors for providing us with medical reports or by hospitals for
providing us with medical records. We have to obtain these reports
and records before we can advise you whether you are likely to be
successful with your medical negligence case.
If, after carrying out the investigation, we believe that you
should proceed with a claim, then we can offer you various remedies
for obtaining compensation. If the medical treatment has resulted
in an unexpected death, then we may recommend that a report be made
to the Coroner's Court. Sometimes we also advise that a report
should be made to the Health Care Complaints Commission of New
South Wales, the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria or the
Health Rights Commission of Queensland.
How long do I have to make a
claim?
There are time limits for making a compensation claim. The time
limits and pre-litigation requirements vary between States and
Territories.
Australian Capital Territory
In the ACT pre-court procedures require a claimant to notify a
potential defendant of a possible claim within the earlier
of nine months of the incident or appearance of symptoms
or four months of instructing a lawyer regarding a possible
claim and the defendant being identified. Generally, a
person has three years from the time of the injury occuring or if
the injury is a disease or disorder three years before the day you
first knew that you suffered an injury that is a disease or
disorder and that the injury is related to someone else's act or
omissions, to bring a claim. If they are a child, there
is provision to extend the time to bring a claim if it involves a
disease or disorder. If Court proceedings are not
commenced within within the relevant time period you may be
prevented from ever bringing a claim. Legal advice is
therefore essential.
Victoria
In Victoria an adult has three years from the time of
injury or medical negligence was (discoverable) to issue
proceedings. Children have six years from the time of injury
or medical negligence was discoverable to ssue proceedings. The
concept of (discoverability) is yet to be fully defined by the
Courts and accordingly it is prudent to be conservative when
judging the date of discoverability to have occurred, for example
where the negligent treatment involves an injury as a result of
surgery undertaken in a negligent fashion, a conservative
assessment as to the date of injury would be the date the surgery
was undertaken, even where the negligence was not discovered by the
Claimant until some time thereafter. There may be circumstances
where you can apply to Court for an extension of time past these
time limits. The position will vary from case-to-case and you
should obtain legal advice about the time limits in your case.