The Law Council of Australia seems to be against tort reform half of the time and in support of it the rest of the time. This time the national peak body for lawyers is all for tort reform, saying it wants a national system of capped liability to protect lawyers and other professionals under professional indemnity insurance claims.

The way the system currently stands is that professionals have “unlimited liability” for claims against them. This is believed to be a factor causing the high increases in professional indemnity premiums.

The Law Council wants all states and territories to follow NSW and WA in introducing laws limiting the liability of professional groups. It’s believed by limiting their liability, the professionals are encouraged to take out professional indemnity insurance.

Under the new leadership of Law Council President Ron Heinrich, the Law Council intends to embark on a new campaign to persuade governments that capping is needed. However, the campaign will fail to succeed at a federal level because plaintiffs can still bring claims under the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act.

And the Commonwealth has already indicated it is opposed to such a move. It made this known in the recent release of the CLERP 9 report by rejecting capping as an appropriate way to deal with the liability of professionals.