Black Saturday survivor angst grows over Maurice Blackburn legal fees

Survivors of the 2009 Black Saturday fires round on Maurice Blackburn amid a bid to increase its legal fees.

Denis Spooner with partner Suzi Kerr at their Strathewen home. Picture: Stuart Walmsley

Survivors of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires have rounded on law firm Maurice Blackburn amid a new bid to increase its legal fees from a class action, which has led to the firm receiving a record amount of about $100 million so far.

Kinglake survivor Vicki Ruhr said it was unacceptable that delays­ in making payments to the victims, and subsequent courtroom events to resolve the problems, were not explained or flagged to those most affected.

Ms Ruhr and two other survivors, Denis Spooner and Suzi Kerr, criticised what they say has been a lack of transparency and treatment of them as “mushrooms”.

They said they were learning about developments from The Australian instead of their lawyers.

The delays in paying the victims, amid ongoing legal costs billed against a $500m settlement in 2014 and a subsequent addition­al $294m, were raised by Victoria’s Supreme Court judge Jack Forrest in a recent ruling but the clients were not alerted to it by the firm.

Justice Forrest, who has broad oversight of the scheme run by Maurice Blackburn, suggested improvements to speed up the assessment and payment process.

He also rejected a bid by Maur­ice Blackburn to use its own solicitors, instead of external lawyers, to take over assessments of surviv­ors’ losses and damages.

The firm, which blames barristers for slowing the scheme, would have generated more fees if its bid had succeeded.

Justice Forrest, who said the firm’s conduct had been “reasonable”, ruled last week: “I think it is vital that any assessment of (personal injury and dependency) claims be carried out by lawyers independent of Maurice Blackburn.

“Until convinced otherwise, I am confident that there are sufficient members of the Victorian Bar and experienced personal injury­ solicitors who should be able to take up the challenge.”

But Justice Forrest said for the firm to make payments early next year or late this year there would need to be “an increase in the rate of assessment completion”, and a reduction in a “backlog of outstanding assessments”.

At an April case conference, he made orders approving payment of $4,856,511.87 to Maurice Blackburn for ongoing administration costs and disbursements for the five months to January this year.

A “special referee”, a court-appoi­nted costs assessor, has not been independently auditing the firm’s costs due to health issues.

Ms Ruhr told The Australian yesterday she was “simply unable to comprehend why there appears to be very little actual regard” for clients who had been waiting to be paid since settlement in mid-2014.

“It seems that everyone has something to say except for the plaintiffs,’’ said the nurse, who was injured and lost her house.

“I’d anticipated we’d all be regularly advised of any serious matters arising throughout the entire­ process. Communication is key, espec­ially as many of us are already traumatised and struggling to make head or tail of the legal process surrounding such a large class action. It is becoming increasingly difficult for many of us to imagine a time free from the burden of the bushfire legacy.”

Ms Ruhr said the class action was contributing to “an unhelpful environment of disillusionment, angst and extra trauma for so many bushfire-affected persons”. She said she was losing faith in the class action process.

Maurice Blackburn’s spokesman said the firm was doing all in its power to ensure payments to its clients were made as quickly as possible from a scheme unprecedented in scale and complexity.