Australia: Professional Negligence

A Victorian Supreme Court case examines whether a 16-year-old mother's 1968 consent to adopt her newborn son was obtained through coercion by hospital and social welfare institutions. The court must determine if the adoption process breached duties of care under standards that existed nearly 60 years ago, while the plaintiff argues she was prevented from seeing her baby and pressured into relinquishing parental rights.

A Victorian tribunal found a coordinating doctor guilty of professional misconduct after an administrative error in the voluntary assisted dying process led to a patient signing their written declaration without required witnesses present. The case examines the heightened responsibility practitioners face when managing VAD documentation and the disciplinary consequences of failing to ensure strict compliance with procedural safeguards, even when errors are unintentional.

The Supreme Court of Tasmania examined whether a general practitioner breached her duty of care by failing to diagnose or refer for investigation symptoms that were later identified as multiple sclerosis. The case explores the challenge of identifying serious neurological disease when symptoms present gradually over time and appear non-specific, while reinforcing that medical standards are assessed based on information available at the time rather than hindsight.

The Health Care Complaints Commission placed a prohibition order on Ms Huirong Zhou, a non-registered practitioner, following a Botox treatment she administered to a patient causing iatrogenic botulism and persistent difficulty swallowing and speaking...

The New South Wales Court of Appeal recently examined a medical negligence case involving total hip replacement surgery, where the plaintiff alleged inadequate risk warnings...

Personal injury law provides support and compensation for people who have been injured due to someone else’s negligence, wrongdoing, or a workplace or institutional failure.

The case provides clear confirmation of the principles applied in determining whether a duty of care exists and establishing negligence.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Aidacare Pty Ltd after the healthcare equipment supplier admitted to making false or misleading representations about consumer rights and using unfair contract terms. This case demonstrates how standard form contracts that limit consumer guarantees can face regulatory scrutiny, with remedies extending to all affected customers over a defined period.

This article outlines the extraordinary circumstances giving rise to consent orders by the State Administrative Tribunal (Western Australia (WA)) in October 2025.