Key developments
- Draft Claim Farming Practices Prohibition Bill 2025 (NSW)
- Measuring Outcomes for First Nations Communities
- National Plan to End the Abuse and Mistreatment of Older People 2024-2034
- Application of the contractor and employment agent provisions in the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW)
- Inquiry into the impact of Renewable Energy Zones on rural and regional communities and industries in NSW
- Good character at sentencing
Draft Claim Farming Practices Prohibition Bill 2025 (NSW)
The Injury Compensation, Criminal Law, Indigenous Issues and Ethics Committees contributed to a Law Society submission to the Department of Communities and Justice on the exposure draft of the Claim Farming Practices Prohibition Bill 2025 (‘Draft Bill’).
In this submission, we emphasised the Law Society’s support for legislation which addresses the issue of ‘claim farming’. Claim farming is a practice whereby a claim farmer refers potential claimants to a lawyer or law practice for financial reward. There are serious ethical issues in cases where victim-survivors of child sexual abuse are targeted.
However, we noted our concerns with proposed section 5 of the Draft Bill, which may criminalise legitimate referral practices made to and by solicitors in certain personal injury contexts. We set out a range of examples to illustrate this problem, including examples of referrals between solicitors and referrals to other third parties such as medical practitioners or support services.
