Bushfire survivors say lawyers ‘must put little person first’

A survivor of the 2009 Black Saturday fires says courts and lawyers have got the framework for class actions wrong.

Denis Spooner, a survivor of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, believes courts and lawyers have got a key part of the framework for class actions wrong.

He says that putting a record settlement of $794 million under the control of a class-action law firm, which earns more in legal fees the longer its administration of the cash pile continues, is unwise.

“I think it is a bit like leaving Dracula in charge of a blood bank,’’ Mr Spooner, 66, said yesterday.

He lost his wife, Marilyn, son Damien and their home when the fires swept through Strathewen in February seven years ago.

“We are being treated like mushrooms and told nothing while the lawyers make their money.’’

His partner, Suzi Kerr, said she wanted their law firm, Maurice Blackburn, “to put the little ­person first like they claim in their advertisements”.

“They need a better understanding of how this is affecting people,’’ she said.

She said bushfires clients felt powerless in a lucrative process that has so far seen about $100m from the settlement funds ­pocketed by lawyers and expert witnesses, while hardly any has been given to the victims yet.

They are frustrated that the bushfire survivors receive scarcely any information about delays in paying the funds that are owed to the firm’s clients.

“There is really nobody consulting with us, representing us or our interests,’’ said a Kinglake survivor­, Vicki Ruhr.

Mr Spooner added: “The only people who are really winning here are the lawyers.

“We don’t know exactly what they are doing with that money.”