NSW: Parents welcome $2.5 million award for former student = 3

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2001
NSW: Parents welcome $2.5 million award for former student = 3

Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association president Dr Peter Cashman said he thought
the damages award was likely to be overturned on appeal.

"The general damages component is in excess of the normal benchmark," he said.

Dr Hogan was awarded $700,000 in general damages by the jury, while $300,000-$400,000
was considered the upper limit, Dr Cashman said.

"I would not be spending the money quite yet if I were him," he said.

He said he did not think the judgment set a precedent because the case revolved around
a "very peculiar set of facts".

Most people who received corporal punishment at school were not left seriously injured,
Dr Cashman said.

He said the jury may have been sending a message to schools that inflicting corporal
punishment on students may result in substantial damages.

"If you inflict physical injury on people ... and cause them economic loss, then you
will be held accountable," he said.

New South Wales Law Society president Nick Meagher said that to his knowledge the awarding
of $700,000 for general damages to compensate for pain and suffering to Dr Hogan was the
highest in the state.

The previous highest award for general damages was in 1996 when a man with brain damage
was awarded $404,000, he said.

Mr Meagher said the "going rate" for general damages for someone who became a quadraplegic
was $350,000.

He said the jury in the case may have been sending a message.

"You might read into this the jury, as a community, was repulsed by the facts, what
was involved in the case," he said.

Mr Meagher said one of the problems for the defence was the jury had to think back
to the circumstances when the punishment was inflicted.

While corporal punishment in schools is now illegal, 17 years ago it was allowed, he said.

AAP gl/rp/mjm

KEYWORD: HOGAN DAYLEAD 3 SYDNEY

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