Twenty-six-year-old Poowong man Izaak Brain, lost his leg after being hit by a car allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road on the afternoon of February 16, 2020.
The Victorian government recently closed another legal loophole confronting survivors of childhood institutional abuse.
Survivors who accepted compensation from an institution relating to child abuse between July 2015 and July 2018 can apply to have that settlement set aside, if it is “just and reasonable” to do so, like all other survivors.
This follows legislation passed in 2018 and 2019 which made it easier for abuse survivors to pursue their rights against organisations and institutions historically harbouring paedophiles.
In the past, institutions used strategies such as time limitations and the Ellis defence to defeat and minimise claims by victims. The Ellis defence relied on the old rule that unincorporated entities could not be sued. This, along with time limitations, meant that many institutions offered limited amounts of compensation to survivors. For survivors, this was their only option to receive compensation from the institution.