Yesterday, the Civil Liability Amendment (Child Abuse) Bill 2021 was introduced in NSW. The Bill has two objectives:

  1. to enable courts to set aside certain agreements that settled claims for child abuse where it is just and reasonable to do so, and
  2. to ensure that Part 2A of the Act does not restrict awards of damages for child abuse.

If passed, the new legislation will have a significant impact on insurers managing historic child abuse claims, particularly those who settled claims before the 2016 amendments to the Limitation Act 1969.

In this update, W+K's Greg Carruthers-Smith, Sean O'Connor and Patrick Thompson provide a brief overview of the Bill and look at some of the issues it raises for insurers.

Click on the download below to read the full update.

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