Damian Riggall

About Damian

Known for being approachable, practical and measured, Damian believes that the early assessment of claims helps achieve practical and prompt resolutions. He has extensive experience in helping to navigate and manage reputational risk for employers, insurers and their insureds.

With nearly 10 years' experience, Damian has acted as an advisor and litigator on behalf of businesses, individuals and insurers (and their insureds) in the areas of employment, financial lines and professional indemnity.

Employment

Damian provides advice to employers on employee management and discipline, termination and restraint provisions. He advises on day to day matters as well as business decisions and strategy.

Experienced in assisting employers to navigate organisational change and restructures, Damian has worked with clients to manage industrial issues during transition and project phases.

Damian has experience running matters to hearing as well as in "out of court" alternative dispute resolution, including mediation.

He has represeted employers in all levels of the State and Federal Courts, and appeared before the Fair Work Commission and specialised tribunals in claims for:

• unfair dismissals,
• general protections,
• discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment,
• workplace health and safety, and
• underpayment of wages and entitlements.

Professional Indemnity and Financial Lines

In professional indemnity matters, Damian has broad experience acting on behalf of insurers (and their insureds), businesses and individuals in the areas of professional indemnity and financial lines. He has acted for a wide range of professionals across civil claims (litigated and pre-litigated), inquiries and disciplinary proceedings.

This includes architects, surveyors, engineers, agronomists, solicitors, barristers, financial advisers, brokers, building and pest inspectors, and all kinds of medical and health practitioners. Damian is particularly experienced in acting for psychologists, having provided advice to members of the Australian Psychological Society for many years.

Damian also advises underwriters and acts as defence counsel across all areas of management liability, including crime loss, investigations, prosecutions and employment practices liability claims. He practices in all levels of the State and Federal Courts.

Awards & Recognition

Doyle's Guide to Leading Lawyers

• Professional Indemnity - Recommended

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Business (Human Resources Management) – Queensland University of Technology
• Bachelor of Laws (Honours) – Queensland University of Technology
• Admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in December 2014

Memberships & Appointments

• Australian Professional Indemnity Group
  • Committee member – Queensland Chapter
• Queensland Law Society

Relevant Experience

Employment

• Representing employers in various unfair dismissal and general protections claims
• Advising employers on coverage and employment entitlements under enterprise agreements and awards
• Assisting in negotiations on restraint, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions following termination, including allegations of misconduct
• Assisting employers on strategies for managing ill and injured employees and termination risks
• Regularly acts in unfair dismissal, general protections, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination claims in both the State and Federal jurisdictions across an array of industries, including not-for-profit associations, health, rural, meat works, real estate, RSLs, sports and leisure and statutory bodies
• Successfully defended a large Queensland not-for-profit employer in proceedings in the Industrial Relations Commission – and on appeal to the Industrial Court of Queensland – for alleged victimisation in the workplace connected with the Australian Marriage Plebiscite ([2019] QIRC 124)
• Successfully defended a 'general protections' claim on behalf of a statutory body in a nine-day trial in the Federal Circuit Court at Cairns involving the detailed investigation into approximately 50 alleged workplace complaints and the reasons for dismissal and the proceedings involved various interlocutory steps, including a recusal application
• Advising on discrimination claims and various workplace investigations, employee management and termination issues for a domestic violence service.
• Acting for a State-wide sport's governing body in a claim for sexual harassment in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission brought by an employee and player against a referee
• Acting for a pool retailer in a sexual harassment claim in the Australian Human Rights Commission
• Acted for a plastics recycling manufacturer in a workplace health and safety prosecution brought by the Queensland regulator in the Magistrates Court of Queensland in relation to a degloving injury.

Professional Indemnity

• • Regularly acts for psychologists in disciplinary proceedings before QCAT for professional misconduct and sexual boundary violations
  • Regularly acts for insurers of private medical clinics and private hospitals in defence of medical negligence claims, including:
    • defending a day hospital in a claim for catastrophic injury following a radiofrequency ablation and steroid injection;
    • defending a day hospital in a claim for bowel perforation sustained during colonoscopy;
    • defending a radiology clinic for alleged delayed diagnosis of Cauda Equina Syndrome;
    • advising underwriters about a claim against an agency midwife for injuries from neonatal hypoglycaemia; and
    • acting for a statutory corporation operating a community health clinic in a claim for the delayed diagnosis of bone cancer.
  • Regularly acts for health practitioners (psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, nurses and doctors) in investigations conducted by AHPRA and/or the Office of Health Ombudsman
  • Acted on behalf of a national architectural practice in a multi-party litigated personal injury claim regarding design and construction of a mining camp
  • Acting in District Court proceedings on behalf of an insurance broker regarding the alleged failure to adequately insure a residential property that ultimately burnt down
  • Acted for a rural supplies and agronomy business on the Darling Downs, defending a $3 million Supreme Court proceeding that alleged negligent agronomy advice connected with the application of residual herbicides to cotton and cereal crops
  • Acted for the State's legal funding provider in two Supreme Court proceedings for alleged negligent management of a grant of aid and alleged vicarious liability of its appointed panel firm
  • Acted for a surveyor in a litigated claim regarding an allegedly negligent set-out survey for a bridge forming part of the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project
  • Acting for insurers on claims by corporations and unincorporated associations regarding financial loss suffered due to the fraudulent conduct of employees and third parties