On 12 November 2023, we (the Applicants) lodged two cases against the State of Queensland (known as the Respondents), alleging breaches of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) and a breach of the Child Placement Principles within the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld). You can read more about the basis of the case on the About the Case page.

The two cases (the parent class action and the child class action) will be managed by the court together, and will be referred to as the DOCS Class Action by us. The DOCS Class Action has recently been allocated to Justice Dowling in the Melbourne Registry of the Federal Court.

The State have lodged two interlocutory applications against the Applicants. An interlocutory application is an application to the court brought by a party to deal with a specific dispute in a proceeding, after the proceeding has started. One application is for the cases to be transferred to Brisbane from Melbourne, and the other one is to “strike out” a number of paragraphs within the Statements of Claim. These applications will be heard on 25 July before Dowling J in Melbourne. You can watch the livestream of the hearings by visiting this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@FederalCourtAus.

Registration by group members is still open by visiting the Registration page of the website.

It is important to remember that class actions can be very slow to resolve, and is likely to take two or more years before there is an outcome.

Please continue to check this page for updates, and pass along the website to anyone you think may be an eligible group member. We welcome anyone with questions to get in touch by using the Contact page, or using the details below:

Ph: 1800 405 405

E: docs@belaw.com.au