22 February 2012

Class action lawyers hit flood areas with direct marketing

IMF (Australia) Ltd  & Maurice
 Blackburn Lawyers flyer being
 distributed across southeast
 Queensland.


Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and class action backers IMF (Australia) have flooded major areas of southeast Queensland with a direct marketing campaign to whip up support for a major class action against Seqwater and the Queensland Government.

A flyer has been distributed in areas of Brisbane and Ipswich badly hit by the floods of 11 January 2011 encouraging flood victims to register for a legal class action on a "no win, no cost to you" basis.

Flood victims are urged to sign up for an information pack if they "suffered loss or damage caused or contributed to by water flowing from Wivenhoe Dam between 7 January 2011 and 12 January 2011".

Goodna Councillor Paul Tully who lost his family home in the flood received the flyer this week saying it had been dropped off to thousands of households across the suburb, in both flood and non-flood areas.

Goodna was the hardest-hit suburb in southeast Queensland in last year's flood with 600 homes destroyed.

Cr Tully said it was a bold move to maximise the number of claimants to put pressure on the Government to settle any class action out of court.

"This may be the only opportunity for flood victims to recover their losses after their insurance claims were generally denied by most companies," Cr Tully said.

The letter to flood victims is signed by John Walker, Executive Director of IMF (Australia) Ltd and states:

"If sufficient support from flood victims exists and IMF's investigations prove fruitful, then proceedings will be commenced.

"This project offers a professional and properly resourced investigation with the costs and risks assumed by IMF, enabling flood victims access to justice where they have a viable claim".

22.2.12