Paulina Moncrieff
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
Related services and key industries
Biography
Paulina Moncrieff is an insurance lawyer based in Sydney with a particular focus on health liability claims.
Paulina has significant experience in acting in the defence of large, complex health claims across a range of medical specialties and jurisdictions including the Supreme Court, District Court and Coroners Court of both New South Wales and Queensland.
Paulina's clients have included the Medical Indemnity Protection Society, the Department of Health in Queensland and the Ministry of Health in NSW. Prior to specialising in health law, Paulina gained valuable general insurance experience in the defence of public liability, professional indemnity and tortious claims at the NSW Crown Solicitors' Office. Paulina has extensive experience acting in claims governed by the Model Litigant Policies of both Queensland and New South Wales.
Paulina is involved in the corporate social responsibility goals of the firm, having coordinated staff participation in the Australian Business Corporation Network mentoring programs and been a committee member of the working group which successfully delivered the firm's first Reconciliation Action Plan.
Professional experience
Collapse all- High Court of Australia 2001
- Supreme Court of New South Wales 2001
- Supreme Court of Queensland 2015
- Medical Indemnity Protection Society – successful cross claim against a private hospital in respect of the medical care provided to the plaintiff in the substantive proceedings, by employed nursing and medical staff of the hospital. The matter analysed the legal issue of the scope of a hospital's non-delegable duty of care to a patient. The decision was significant in the health sector for highlighting that a hospital has an independent, stringent, non-delegable duty of care to a patient admitted to its facility. The decision was an important reminder for health care practitioners in NSW that the duty of care owed by hospitals to patients is independent and separate from that owed by medical practitioners (Stefanyszyn v Brown; Brown v Newcastle Private Hospital Pty Limited t/as Newcastle Private Hospital [2016] NSWSC 826).
- QLD Health – acting on behalf of an intensive care paramedic in a Coronial Inquest into the death of a young child, requiring close consideration of the factual and medical evidence to determine the manner and cause of death, management of organisational issues and adverse media exposure (Coronial Inquest into the death of Ruby Chen).
- Successfully resolving a complex, multi-party health liability claim (quantum estimate of AU$10 million) on behalf of a medical specialist, which required consideration of technical medical causation evidence, technical pleading points and issues of contribution between four defendants.
- Successfully resolving medically complex health claims with multiple defendants and significant quantum exposure, by way of mediation and compulsory conference in both the Queensland and New South Wales jurisdictions.
- Regularly appearing in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal on behalf of medical practitioners in disciplinary matters brought by the Medical Board of Australia.
- NSW Ministry of Health – acting on behalf of the Ambulance Service of New South Wales, in a high profile Coronial Inquest into the death of a 16-year-old school boy, involving various stakeholders and issues of political sensitivity (Coronial Inquest into the Death of David Iredale 1427/2006).
- NSW Ministry of Health – acting in a high profile Coronial Inquest into the death of an eight-year-old boy from pneumococcal meningitis, involving political sensitivity and complex medical issues (Coronial Inquest into the Death of Isaraelu Pele 2285/2007).
- Paulina Moncrieff, Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (QLD): A New Landscape for the Regulation of Health Professionals in Queensland, June 2014
- NSW Medico-Legal Society, 2015
- NSW Women in Insurance, 2015
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