A group of sexual abuse survivors took their former lawyers to court. They claim they were encouraged to accept compensation payouts that were significantly lower than what they could have received. It is alleged they missed out on millions of dollars.
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00:00It's been 50 years, but the sexual abuse Brian suffered as a 12-year-old continues to haunt
00:08him.
00:09To this day I still have nightmares, wake up in cold sweats.
00:14It never goes away.
00:16Brian spent two years at this former Salvation Army boys home in Melbourne's east.
00:21He was just 12 when he was preyed upon by two pedophiles.
00:24I thought I was the guilty one because that's the way they made you feel.
00:29Four years ago Brian was compensated through the National Redress Scheme, but after legal
00:33fees he got just $40,000.
00:36I felt like I was being kicked in the teeth.
00:40Brian's current lawyers believe he was short-changed and would have received much more if he'd
00:44taken a different legal path and gone to court.
00:48Under the redress scheme payouts are capped at $150,000.
00:52The value of the claim that many individuals, we allege, have lost runs into the hundreds
01:02of thousands, sometimes over a million dollars.
01:05And those kinds of figures have been awarded by the courts in recent times.
01:09Just last year the Western Bulldogs AFL club was ordered to pay abuse survivor Adam Neal
01:14$5.9 million.
01:17Brian is now suing his former lawyers at No More Legal.
01:20In a statement of claim the legal centre is alleged to have pushed Brian towards the
01:24redress option without properly explaining the potential benefits of going to court.
01:29They use what we call the No More system and that is, it's a generic pro forma sausage
01:38factory type approach.
01:39In a statement No More Legal says it's proudly helped thousands of clients obtain redress
01:44payments and will vigorously defend the claims made against it in court.
01:49More than 180 former clients of No More from around the country have joined Brian, turning
01:55this into a major class action in Victoria's Supreme Court.
01:58If No More loses, the centre or its insurers might have to pay out millions.