[BITList] sue

[David Harvey]

I work in the court system as a volunteer, in fact I have just come home 
from a very long and stressful day in the Family Violence Court. Also I have 
a son in Melbourne who is a lawyer, specialising in taxation matters. My 
son-in-law lives in Perth and he is also a lawyer but practises in the 
intellectual property field in Jakarta (he commutes). There are two sides to 
every story and neither of my relations are rich layabouts. However, on the 
face of it, I agree this appears to be ridiculous. She will have to prove 
negligence on behalf of the council or their employees, so she may have a 
case, but any damages granted would be diminished by her own action, or lack 
thereof.. A similar type of incident occurred here when a swimmer dived off 
some rocks into shallow water and severely injured himself. He sued the 
local council because there was not a warning notice. The judge threw it out 
of court. In Western Australia the law states that you cannot sue councils 
or other relevant authorities (e.g. Fremantle Harbour Board) for paving 
stones out of alignment on a footpath.

Dave