Connect with meCatherine has significant general liability experience and focuses on defending personal injury and pure psychological claims. Catherine acts for host employers, property owners, real estate agents, manufacturers, disability service providers and childcare centres. She is also experienced in defending professional indemnity claims for solicitors, barristers, accountants, financial institutions, real estate agents and architects.
Catherine identifies key issues quickly and works collaboratively with clients to achieve commercial results in a timely manner. She identifies early settlement opportunities but will vigorously defend claims where appropriate and when instructed to do so.
Clients say they value Catherine’s high level of skill and common sense approach to resolving claims and that it is good to have Catherine on their side. She was a finalist for the Lawyers Weekly Special Counsel of the Year Award in 2020.
General Liability / Casualty / Personal Injury
- Acting for a childcare centre in a statutory prosecution, which resulted in avoiding any monetary fine, and successfully defending an appeal by the Crown on grounds that the sentence imposed was manifestly inadequate.
- Acting in a successful appeal in Bunnings v Giudice [2018] NSWCA 144 to overturn findings of negligence made by the District Court regarding a children’s play area in a Bunnings store.
- Acting in the successful appeal for a real estate agent sued following a balcony collapse, which resulted in multiple claims against multiple defendants: Libra Collaroy Pty Ltd v Bhide [2017] NSWCA 196. The claim included complex liability and apportionment issues resulting from a contractual indemnity clause.
- Acting for a disability service provider in a personal injury claim made by the parents of a resident who escaped from its premises and was missing for an hour. The claim resolved informally before litigation was commenced.
- Acting for a large retailer, following the death of a contractor at a Bunnings store, in a compensation to relatives claim and related nervous shock claims made by his wife and children. All claims were resolved at an early stage in the litigation.
- Assisting a dive school to respond to a police investigation and coronial inquiry into the death of one of its divers.
Professional Liability
- Successfully defending solicitors in Secured Lending 1 Pty Ltd v Mahmassani [2021] NSWSC 811 in professional negligence proceedings for alleged failures to properly explain mortgage documents to clients.
- Successfully defending an appeal to the High Court of Australia for a trustee in bankruptcy in a claim made by a bankrupt regarding a caveat allegedly lodged improperly by the trustee: Boensch v Pascoe [2019] HCA 49.
- Successfully defending solicitors in Sanossian v Parisi & Associates Pty Limited [2019] NSWDC 599 in professional negligence proceedings for failing to give proper advice on the settlement of Family Provision Act proceedings commenced against the client.
- Legacy, Sensitive and Complex Claims
- Personal Injury
- Product Liability and Recall
- Professional Liability
- Manufacturing and Consumer Goods
- Financial Institutions and Services
- Property and Real Estate
- Public Sector and Education
- Professions and Business Services
- Australian Insurance Law Association
- Australian Professional Indemnity Group
- Law Society of NSW
- NSW Claims Discussion Group
- Women in Insurance