A High Court decision last week doesn’t signal a weakening of the tort reform process, a leading insurance lawyer says.

Phillips Fox Lawyers partner Michael Proud told Sunrise Exchange News that while the High Court decision last week is seen by media commentators as a win for plaintiff lawyers, it is not a significant factor in the tort reform debate. “What it does provide is an opportunity for a limited number of people in the community to make a claim.”

Carol Anne Stingel has been allowed to sue former Victorian aboriginal leader Geoff Clark for psychological damages resulting from an alleged rape 35 years ago. She can now take action in the Victorian County Court for damages related to the delayed onset of post-traumatic stress she says she suffers as a result of the alleged attack.

Lawyers Maurice Blackburn Cashman asked the High Court to confirm that section 5(1A) of the Limitation of Actions Act allows a person to seek a claim that would otherwise be out of time, if that person was unaware of a disease or disorder or didn’t understand it was caused by the events in question.

The court decided psychiatric injuries could fall within that section of the Act, and overturned a ruling by the Victorian Court of Appeal, which stated Ms Stingel couldn’t commence civil proceedings because her case was too old.