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<br><B><I>
<P>Professions want Ipp reforms to apply broadly</P></B></I></B></I>
<P>Professions Australia today called upon Heads of Government to ensure that the Ipp reforms to the law of negligence apply to all professionals, not just to medical practitioners.</P>
<P>"COAG on 6 December gives Heads of Government a chance to get it right on negligence law," Professions Australia President, John Castles, said today. "Each State and Territory will be legislating to implement the Ipp recommendations. It is essential that they ensure that definitions in their legislation are broad enough to apply to <EM>all cases involving personal injury</EM>, not just those where medical practitioners are involved or where there is a public liability issue." </P>
<P>Mr Castles was speaking after Professions Australia’s General Meeting in Canberra. Professions Australia represents 200 000 professionals ranging from accountants to engineers, architects and dentists. </P>
<P>COAG will consider a report from Finance Ministers on Ipp. The Finance Ministers’ Joint Communique states that "the key Ipp recommendations that go to establishing liability should be implemented on a nationally consistent basis and each jurisdiction agreed to introduce the necessary legislation as a matter of priority".</P>
<P>"When it was discussing its Recommendation 3 on standard of care," Mr Castles said, "the Ipp panel considered a number of options as to which occupational groups the proposed rule might apply. It concluded that which option should be adopted ‘is ultimately a political question for governments to determine’.</P>
<P>"I agree. State and Territory Governments have the opportunity to legislate now to settle this question: the rule should be applied to all professionals. Legislation should put this issue beyond doubt rather than leaving it to the courts. And the Prime Minister should show leadership to ensure that this happens."</P>
<P>"We need to ensure equitable treatment across all of the professions where personal injury claims may arise," Mr Castles said. </P>
<P>"Among Professions Australia’s member organisations, legislation like this would benefit health care professionals like dentists, pharmacists, audiologists and physiotherapists, as well as architects and engineers whose work in the construction industry may lead to personal injury claims."</P>
<P>Mr Castles said Ipp Recommendation 3 needed to be implemented along the lines in paragraph 3.31 of the Ipp Report: "A <EM>service provider</EM> is not negligent if the service was provided in accordance with an opinion widely held by a significant number of respected service-providers in the relevant field, unless the court considers that the opinion was irrational".</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Similarly, in implementing Ipp Recommendation 4, the standard of care for professionals generally should be determined by reference to what could reasonably be expected of a person professing a particular skill and to the relevant circumstances at the time of the alleged negligence. Here the word "person" would need to defined broadly to apply to professions generally.</P>
<P>"The Commonwealth also has a legislative responsibility," Mr Castles said, "in relation to amending the Trade Practices Act to remove inconsistency. I understand the Commonwealth has agreed to do this but it needs to do it properly."</P>
<P>"For example, in legislating for Ipp Recommendations 17-22 on limitations of liability and the amount of damages, it will be important to draft the legislation broadly enough to ensure it applies to all professionals, not just medical practitioners."</P>
<P>25 November 2002</P>
<P>CONTACT: </P>
<P>John Castles, President, 0408 370 053</P>
<P>David Stephens, Policy Consultant, 0413 867 972</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Note: The Ipp Report at para 3.30 proposes that Recommendation 3 should apply only to medical practitioners, but in such terms as to leave it open to the courts to extend the rule to other occupational groups.</P><B></B></B>
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