AUSTRALIA
Lawyers Weekly
2 May, 2014 Leanne Mezrani
The CEO of Slater & Gordon has defended the firm’s actions in its class action against the Christian Brothers and denied that the firm coerced sex abuse victims to sign a settlement.
Speaking with Lawyers Weekly, Slaters partner Hayden Stephens (pictured) denied statements made by Edward Delaney and Gordon Grant at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on 30 April. Delaney had claimed that the firm “forced” sexual abuse victims to sign a settlement and Gordon said he believed Slaters had bugged his phone.
Delaney and Gordon were among 240 victims of sexual abuse represented by Slaters in a class action against the Christian Brothers that ran in the early 1990s.
Stephens gave evidence at the Commission yesterday (1 May). He said the Christian Brothers, represented by Carroll & O’Dea, opened negotiations to settle sexual abuse allegations in WA by demanding that the plaintiff pay the defendant’s legal costs.
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