While working from home during the pandemic, we successfully settled a common law claim for damages for pain and suffering and loss of earnings for a leading teacher employed by the Department of Education and Training.
Our client suffered a severe psychiatric injury while working overtime during the course of her employment as she witnessed threatening behaviour by students and was:
- directly threatened with violence by a student
- involved with stressful interactions with challenging and aggressive students and their families
- not supported and/or trained by the Department in relation to handling the above
- subjected to aggressive and intimidating behaviour by the management of her school
- subjected to bullying and harassment by her colleagues.
As a result, our client was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, anxiety and depression. She required regular treatment from her general practitioner, psychiatrist and psychologist and was also prescribed anti-depressants to take daily.
At the age of 57, we helped lodge a common law claim for both pain and suffering and loss of earnings until retirement age as she has been unable to work since October 2015 due to her injury. We were ultimately able to settle our client’s claim for a significant six-digit figure without the need for litigation.
Our client was very grateful and gifted us with a personalised mug and to date, it is still being used.
If you have experienced a psychiatric injury during the course of your employment, contact our team of lawyers on (03) 9321 9988 for advice on accessing compensation.
