Further compensation may be claimed if you have settled a previous claim for Institutional sex abuse

Up until recent years it was necessary for survivors of childhood sexual abuse or serious physical abuse to lodge a compensation claim in Court within three years of becoming an adult.  This means that a claim would need to be lodged in Court before the person turned 21 years of age.  In our experience, a survivor rarely contacted us before they turned 21 years of age and instead would contact us many years after the three year time limit had expired.  As a result, they were required to seek an extension of time to bring their claim.  This was a difficult exercise and the various South Australian institutions, churches and government responding to the claims took a hardline in relation to the risks the person bringing the claim faced, resulting in modest compensation being offered to resolve claims.  That compensation was often significantly lower than what the claims could have resolved for if the barrier of the time limit was removed, when considering the extent of the harm suffered by the person affected.  

In 2021, the South Australian Parliament passed legislation allowing settlements reached against the South Australian Government, Churches, Schools or other South Australian run institutions to be set aside for compensation claims relating to childhood sexual abuse or serious physical abuse.   While the legislation has been passed, it is yet to be activated.  

The legislation provides that for the settlement to be set aside, a Court needs to find that it is just and reasonable to do so. There are various considerations for a Court to determine whether setting the settlement agreement aside is just and reasonable, which include:

• The extent to which the need to seek an extension of time to bring the claim contributed to the settlement; and
• The circumstances in which the settlement agreement was negotiated.

The legislation does not however allow a settlement reached under a Redress Scheme to be set aside.  

If you have resolved a compensation claim for childhood sexual abuse or serious physical abuse against a church, school, institution or the South Australian Government, and would like to know if you are entitled to claim further compensation, contact MKF Lawyers for advice. Matt DeGregorio, Katie Sajatovic and Floyd Bakewell of MKF Lawyers have collectively assisted hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse and serious physical abuse secure compensation from Churches, Schools, the South Australian Government and various institutions, and are all experts in this area of legal practice. We can accommodate a request for a male or female lawyer to discuss setting aside a previous settlement agreement and for that lawyer to then manage the claim until is resolution.  

Even though the legislation allowing a previous settlement agreement to be set aside has not as yet been activated, if you have resolved a claim for childhood sexual abuse or serious physical abuse, you should register your interest in bringing a further claim with MKF Lawyers. This can be done by emailing us at info@mkflawyers.com.au or calling us on 08 7093 2998.

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