Areas of Practice
Class Actions | Human Rights | Contract Disputes | Education Law | Negotiation | Restraint of Trade | Redundancy | Disciplinary Action | |Workplace Bullying | General Protections | Unfair Dismissal | Sexual Harassment | Workplace Discrimination | Industrial Disputes | Whistleblower Protections | Privacy Issues | Environmental Law | Cultural Heritage
Class Actions
Benedict is currently briefed in the Western Australian Stolen Wages/Slavery class action (led by William Edwards and Joshua Creamer of Counsel), the Ms DHU class action (filed in the Federal Court in Perth), the Channel 9 Palm Island section 18C RDA Class Action (led by Ronald Merkel QC and Jim Hartley and filed in the Federal Court in Melbourne/Sydney) the Banksia Hill Detention Centre AHRC Group Complaint/ class action and investigating the Pacific Labour Scheme AHRC Group Complaint/ class action. Benedict is also currently investigating a range of other class actions in human rights, privacy rights and digital technologies, extraterritorial liability of Australian mining companies and mass sexual harassment and disability discrimination class actions against prominent Australian institutions.
Benedict was previously employed as a class actions lawyer at one of Australia’s pre-eminent class actions firms. During that time, he worked on the Queensland Floods class action and the Equine Influenza class action as well as involvement in some shareholder class actions and investigating prospective toxic tort class actions including lead contamination. As a senior solicitor and litigator, Benedict ran a number of Group Complaints/representative proceedings in the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) against Google, Apple and Facebook and Channel 7 Sunrise for discrimination claims all of which resolved prior to hearing. He has since been involved in investigating and formulating prospective class actions including the PFAS representative proceedings in Katherine and Darwin. Benedict has also successfully completed the Class Actions Masters course at the University of Melbourne taught by the Hon. Justice Bernard Murphy of the Federal Court of Australia. The course encompassed the origins of class actions/representative proceedings and developing class action jurisprudence in Australia and overseas comparable jurisdictions.
Employment & Industrial
Prior to being called to the bar, Benedict successfully completed his Specialist Accreditation in Workplace and Industrial Law through the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and the Queensland Law Society (QLS). Benedict has broad-ranging experience representing both employees and employers from a wide variety of professions and industries. In the federal jurisdiction, encompassing the Fair Work Commission, Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Federal Circuit Court and Federal Court of Australia (FCA), Benedict has broad-ranging experience successfully representing clients from executive level positions at multinational companies to medical professionals, senior educators, legal professionals, Tradies and independent contractors in a wide variety of claims and causes of action. In the State jurisdiction, encompassing the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) and the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC), Benedict has successfully represented a wide variety of public servants from a range of departments and agencies and levels of experience including Senior Ministerial Staffers, Deputy Commissioners, police officers, medical professionals, senior level managers and more. He recently succeeded on behalf of his clients and 400+ council workers in defeating the proposed Vaccine Mandate policy of Gold Coast Council sought to be introduced to apply to 4,500 workers. He also represented 39 paramedics and employees of Ambulance Victoria in an industrial dispute against the Vaccine Mandate in December 2021.
Commissions, Inquests and Inquiries
Benedict has significant experience as a solicitor in representing and appearing for bereaved families in Coronial Inquests and Coronial Investigations, namely in a number of Death-in-Custody and Death-in-Care Inquests. Benedict has significant insight and empathy for families going through this process from his own personal experiences.
Benedict also has experience in representing and appearing for clients in a variety of Commissions and Inquiries including the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Case Study No. 38 with respect to the criminal process, (which subsequently prompted legislative reform regarding tendency and coincidence evidence) and the Grantham Floods Commission of Inquiry.
Administrative & Constitutional
As a solicitor, Benedict had wide-ranging experience successfully representing clients in judicial review matters before the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Queensland. Benedict has experience formulating innovative and robust frameworks for decisive litigation on matters of significant importance including in the areas of regulation of the medical profession, environmental protection, Migration Law, Native Title and involving constitutional arguments including the implied freedom of political communication. Since being called to the bar he has appeared in a three day judicial review hearing in the Federal Court of Australia led by Julian Burnside QC representing a medical doctor in an application against the federal Minister for Health and the Director of the Professional Services Review, inter alia, under the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) including constitutional argument on the implied freedom of political communication.
Privacy & Digital Rights
Benedict holds significant interest in the area of privacy rights and has experience in privacy rights litigation. As a solicitor, he represented clients in claims for damages for breaches of privacy rights in the State jurisdiction by government agencies. He also represented clients in reviewing and appealing Right to Information (RTI) decisions and Freedom of Information (FOI) decisions. He is currently an appointed supervisor of the Edinburgh International Justice Initiative (EIJI) (at the University of Edinburgh Law School, Scotland) conducting a year-long investigation and comparative analysis into the use of biometric surveillance by law enforcement agencies in three European jurisdictions for European Digital Rights (EDRi) . Benedict was previously appointed to the Advisory Council of Digital Rights Watch Australia.
International
Benedict has been engaged as a solicitor to perform international advocacy in a number of different areas, from assisting with death penalty defences in the Philippines to cases of alleged corruption in the Asia Pacific, as well as working with international law firms to lodge complains with various United Nations Treaty Bodies, Working Groups and Special Rapporteurs. Benedict has also been involved in devising and running international litigation strategies in education and administrative law matters for international students. Benedict has an active interest in Business and Human Rights and along with a number of his colleagues from the University of oxford he assisted in co-founding an international business and human rights consultancy, Synceritas. During the start-up phase Benedict engaged numerous NGOs and an international banking representative in Geneva for various projects including drafting and consulting on a substantive submission to the federal Australian Parliamentary Inquiry and Consultation regarding the introduction of a Modern Slavery Act for Australia. Benedict was also previously a Visiting Fellow of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Faculty of Law International Law and Global Governance (ILGG) Research Program.
Disciplinary Proceedings
As a solicitor, Benedict represented many professionals from a variety of professions in disciplinary proceedings at both preliminary and advanced stages including up to representation before the relevant tribunals. Benedict has represented numerous medical professionals, police officers, senior public servants and teachers. He has experience in running successful hearings against the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) and has also litigated a negligence claim in the Supreme Court of Queensland against the Australian Medical Council (AMC) resulting in a successful resolution prior to trial.
Human Rights & Discrimination
Benedict has a deep and abiding interest in human rights and social justice issues stemming from his secondary education at John XXIII College under the motto of ‘Seek Justice’. As both a barrister and solicitor, Benedict has represented a broad range of clients in wide ranging unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment claims in both the State and Federal jurisdictions including, inter alia, racial discrimination group claims against some of the largest companies in the world (Google, Apple and Facebook) and large media companies (Channel 7/ Seven West Media Ltd) as well as representing women from all walks of life in sexual harassment and sex discrimination claims and children against educational institutions in disability discrimination and age discrimination claims.
Between 2016 and 2018 Benedict served two consecutive terms as national president of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR), a national association of legal professionals active in practicing and promoting awareness of international human rights standards in Australia. During his tenure, and in conjunction with his Masters dissertation, Benedict co-founded and launched the campaign for a Queensland Human Rights Act which, after four years, was successful in seeing the passage of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld). Benedict also attended Australia’s Second Universal Periodic Review before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva as an NGO observer on behalf of ALHR. Benedict has presented at numerous national conferences as a keynote speaker on human rights issues as well as at an international conference in Paris on the topic of international business and human rights.
Recently Benedict has been briefed to:
represent approximately 450 Gold Coast City Council workers in an industrial dispute successfully overturning the Council’s attempted introduction of a Vaccine Mandate over a period of about 6 months;
represent 54 Qld Police Officers against the Commissioner of Police’s Vaccine Mandate Directions (heard in the QSC before Martin J in June 2022 led by Dan O’Gorman QC - judgement currently reserved) represent 39 Ambulance Victoria paramedics and staff members in an urgent injunction against the vaccine mandate;
represent Qld Corrective service Officers, public school teachers and private school teachers against the Vaccine mandates, filed in the Supreme Court and yet to be heard.
Intentional Torts & Personal Injury
Benedict has an energetic interest and experience in traditional and intentional tort claims including false imprisonment claims and misfeasance in public office. Benedict has experience as a solicitor in litigating intentional tort claims in the District Court of Queensland as well as developing prospects for such cases in the federal jurisdiction. Benedict has a background in personal injury law in Queensland and was employed for a time at a leading national personal injury law firm successfully advancing claims for clients in workers compensation, motor vehicle accidents and public liability law.
Benedict is particularly interested in the tort of misfeasance in public office as a means of accountability in government decision-making and protecting the rights of people adversely impacted by such decisions.