Login
National firm not liable in employee’s alleged rape
A law firm fought against compensating an employee who alleged she was raped while attending a work event.
Naomi Neilson
Content warning: This article references sexual assault and rape.
In addition to sponsoring the conference, the event was run by a client of Hall Payne Lawyers. The alleged perpetrator attended the event but was not otherwise connected to the firm.
According to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the employee attended during the day as a “firm representative” and went to a dinner that was scheduled to end at 10.30pm.
The alleged rape occurred in the perpetrator’s villa around 2am.
The employee said the terms of her contract of employment obligated her to attend the event, and her presence at the resort, including the intervening night, was “in accord with her employment”.
While the firm accepted the employee suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had paid for treatment by a psychologist, it disputed the workers’ compensation claim because her employment was “not the major or most significant factor” in the alleged rape.
The tribunal agreed with this submission.
The firm argued her employment on the night came to an end at 10.30pm, and the alleged rape took place 3.5 hours after this.
Further, the firm said it did not “encourage or induce such activity”.
Under section 81a of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, an employer can cease paying compensation to an employee if a reasonably arguable case exists concerning liability.
The tribunal found the employee’s attendance at the conference “was not only induced or encouraged by the employer but was in fact required by the worker’s contract of employment”.
“However, it is arguable in my view … that the activity causative of the worker’s PTSD, namely the sexual assault, was not an activity induced or encouraged by the employer, and hence, there was an insufficient connection with the worker’s employment to create a liability in the employer to pay compensation,” the tribunal said.
The firm will not need to pay compensation.
The case is Hall Payne Lawyers Pty Ltd Trading as Hall Payne Lawyers v MSQ [2025] TASCAT 6 (14 January 2025).
Help is available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Respect on 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). Each law society and bar association also has further contacts available on their respective websites.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
