I am the newest addition to the Everingham Solomons Personal Injury Team.
I have been working at Everingham Solomons since September 2022 as a Law Graduate in the Personal Injury team, and I was recently admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales as a Solicitor in April 2023.
I am originally from Broken Hill and completed my schooling there and moved to Armidale in 2018 after finishing my High School Certificate. I commenced studying a double bachelor’s degree in Law and Criminology and lived on campus at Duval College during my four years of study.
After finishing my degree in 2022, I returned home to Broken Hill where I completed my Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice through the College of Law. During this time, I undertook work experience at Legal Aid, where I assisted on several criminal and family law matters. This experience allowed me to gain skills in advocacy, research, and ethics.
I moved to Tamworth in August 2022 where I commenced working at Everingham Solomons with Mark Grady. I was exposed to the world of personal injury and became fascinated with the processes and legislation involved in this area. Here in the personal injury team, we focus on all types of matters involving workers compensation, common law claims, public liability claims, and motor vehicle accidents.
When I’m not at work, I enjoy playing Australian Rules Football and Oztag, or catching up with friends.
As a Solicitor, I enjoy engaging with clients and helping them through complicated processes whilst protecting and maintaining their best interests to achieve a just and fair outcome. I look forward to doing this for the local community as part of the Everingham Solomons team, because Helping You is Our Business.
Once upon a time, there was a woman by the name of Mrs Donoghue. One day, Mrs Donoghue and her friend went to a cafe, where her friend purchased her an ice cream and ginger beer. Sitting down to enjoy a nice catch up, Ms Donoghue took a large gulp of the beverage contained in the dark bottle. She decided to share with her friend, who poured the remainder of the ginger beer into a clear tumbler. Along with the rest of the liquid, came a decomposed snail. Undoubtedly, both parties were shocked and horrified at what they saw, and more importantly, what they had consumed. Days later, Mrs Donoghue fell ill with gastroenteritis and shock.
Sounds like a made-up story, right? This case was in fact a landmark decision in English Tort Law which established the foundation of negligence, called Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. The case involved the defendant, Stevenson, who was the manufacturer of the ginger beer, and Donoghue, the woman who consumed the ginger beer with the decomposed snail in it.
Mrs Donoghue commenced legal action against the defendant, but the idea of success seemed slim – there was no breach of contract as she did not purchase the drink, and there was no way to prove that Stevenson had sold the woman a faulty product. However, her solicitor argued that the defendant owed a duty of care to his consumers. This was, to take reasonable care to ensure that his products were safe for consumption.
The case was held before the House of Lords in 1932 where Lord Atkin proclaimed, “and with the knowledge that the absence of reasonable care in the preparation of putting of the products will result in an injury to the consumers life or property, owes a duty to the consumer to take that reasonable care.”
The threshold of duty of care and reasonable care is maintained in Australian common law today and is most common in the area of personal injury and public liability. If you find that you have suffered an injury due to the other party being in breach of their duty of care, you may be able to claim compensation under the law of public liability.
If you have questions, we at Everingham Solomons can assist you because, Helping You is Our Business.
I am the newest addition to the Everingham Solomons Personal Injury Team.