AUSTRALIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Robert Samut, Barry Nilsson
tingency fees, which may extend to 30–40% of the damages award). Again, there is an exception here in Victoria, where plaintiff lawyers can charge on a con - tingency fee basis in class actions if a court makes an
There have recently been a number of new law firms entering the legal market that specialise in healthcare claims. The bigger firms tend to still dominate. Few claims go to trial. Most trials take place in New South Wales and Victoria. In other Australian states and territories, there may only be a handful of health- care trials in any one year. Access to justice in personal injury claims is arguably open to most with the proliferation of no-win-no-fee lawyers. That is not seen to be controversial, and the community and insurance industry accept that people who do not have the means to pay legal fees upfront should not be denied access to justice, particularly where the alleged negligence has impacted their abil - ity to earn an income. This has been balanced by tort law reform legislation that places downward pressure on claims costs, par - ticularly with the more minor and speculative claims. In Queensland, for example, there are restrictions on a claimant’s ability to claim for legal costs and out - lays where the value of their claim is below a certain amount. Following the release of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Indexation Notice 2025, if an adverse event were to happen post-1 July 2025 and a plain - tiff made a personal injury negligence claim against a healthcare provider, the plaintiff would have no enti - tlement to costs and outlays if the claim was worth AUD58,089 or less, and would only be entitled to claim AUD4,860 for costs and outlays if the damages were between AUD58,090 and AUD96,870, beyond which there are no restrictions. Life Sciences In the life sciences area, medical device product liabil - ity litigation continues to feature prominently. There appear to be signs that the wave of litigation against orthopaedic device manufacturers is finally begin - ning to slow. Much of this litigation was precipitated by data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR), which was established in the early 2000s. By 2010, there was a decade of data from this registry avail - able publicly, including statistics indicating prostheses that had a “higher-than-anticipated date of revision”. The data was used by lawyers to identify products
order to that effect. Medicinal Cannabis
Medicinal cannabis continues to attract the attention of regulators due to widespread poor practices. The Medical Board of Australia (the “Board”), overseen by AHPRA, has specific guidelines regarding telemedi - cine and online prescribing. Concern has recently been expressed by the Board about the practices of medical cannabis companies, including their online prescribing. On 9 July 2025, AHPRA published a guidance report on the professional responsibilities of medical can - nabis organisations. In this guidance, they referred to the following issues: • there is evidence of poor practice in prescribing medical cannabis that is leading to patient harm; • most medical cannabis products prescribed in Australia are not approved by the TGA; • a high number of medical cannabis products in Australia contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which makes them Schedule 8 medicines (con - trolled drugs in Australia) due to the risks of mis - use/abuse and potentially addictive properties; • the Board is concerned that profits are being prioritised over patients in some medical cannabis prescribing practices; • business models have emerged that appear to use aggressive and sometimes misleading advertising that targets vulnerable people; • there is an inherent conflict of interest for doctors and nurses working in an organisation that pre - scribes and dispenses a single product (ie, brand); and • AHPRA and the Board will work with other regula - tors to better understand prescribing patterns, and may investigate the practices of practitioners with high rates of prescribing of any scheduled medi - cine, including medicinal cannabis.
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