Sex Abuse Royal Commission: Slater and Gordon Lawyer Defends Firm's Representation of Victims

By Rebecca Trigger and Jade Macmillan
ABC News
May 1, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-01/lawyers-defend-actions-at-child-abuse-hearings/5423720

Law firm Slater and Gordon has defended its handling of a class action on behalf of people abused in children's homes run by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia.

Several victims who have given evidence at the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse took part in the class action.

Ted Delaney, who received $3,000 compensation, described the process as a joke and accused Slater and Gordon of fighting for its own commission rather than the victims.

Hayden Stephens, a Slater and Gordon lawyer, today appeared on the fourth day of the commission's hearings in Perth.

In the early 1990s, Mr Stephens was involved in the class action against the Christian Brothers representing the boys who alleged abuse.

He said the Christian Brothers applied to have proceedings, initially launched in Victoria and New South Wales, moved to WA's jurisdiction, where the statute of limitations was shorter.

The class action was settled by the establishment of a $3.5 million trust set up to issue payments to former residents of the orphanages.

The law firm initially sought an $18 million settlement.

Mr Stephens admitted the outcome did not fairly reflect the suffering the men went through.

"But it was the best that we could do in the framework you suggest, in the parameters of this litigation," he said.

Lack of respect for victims, says lawyer

Mr Stephens criticised the structure of the trust, where a claimant had to sign a deed of release, which meant they could not make subsequent claims and had to acknowledge the Brothers denied any wrongdoing.

"From my perspective it lacked respect and integrity for the victims in many ways," he said.

"There was no acknowledgment necessarily as part of this settlement scheme of the abuse and the harm these men had suffered.

"It was a structure where, yet again, those men were asked to go cap in hand in order to seek help.

"They didn't want to go and seek help from the Christian Brothers order any more - they had had that experience as children.

"What they wanted was closure. This didn't reflect that."

Lawyer Howard Harrison, who represented the Christian Brothers in the 1990s litigation on behalf of law firm Carroll and O'Dea, said he initially found the claims "difficult to believe".

"Just in terms of my own human experience as a father and a lawyer ... I just personally had not come across this type of human behaviour," Mr Harrison said.

"I now believe them."

He said leaders of the church indicated to him there would be some truth in the claims.

"Certainly the Christian Brothers knew that there had been management issues, sexual misconduct issues, a number of offending brothers and a number of men egregiously hurt," Mr Harrison said.

Total legal costs for both sides were estimated by Royal Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan at $4 million, more than the amount paid into the trust for victims.

Secret report detailed sex abuse complaints

The commission was also told of a "secret report", titled "Reaping the Whirlwind", written by one of the Christian Brothers and detailing complaints of sexual abuse.

The document, authored by a Brother Barry Coldrey, was uncovered by Slater and Gordon during proceedings in the early 1990s.

Mr Stephens said the report was important to Slater and Gordon's case.

"It was clearly a pivotal moment in the litigation," he said.

"It certainly gave us confidence that the case in negligence against the Trustees of the Christian Brothers and the Catholic Archbishop of Perth was growing in strength.

"[We were able to show] the decision-making and the decisions to suppress complaints were many, and were made by the executive of the trustees of the Christian Brothers order.

"It was as though Brother Coldrey - this insider's account - was in fact in some kind of perverse way briefed by us to compile ... the knowledge held by the executive of the order and their acts and omissions taken in respect of their failure to properly care for those children."

The commission has heard from victims who were residents at institutions between 1947 and 1968.