All Katherine residents will be receiving an official letter in the mail from Shine Lawyers within the next two months.
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According to the expert compensation lawyers, the mail out is usual business in any class action.
Shine Lawyers recently filed a class action against the Department of Defence on behalf of the Katherine community on the basis PFAS chemical contamination negatively impacted business and land values.
All Katherine home owners were automatically signed up to the law suit.
At the Katherine Town Council meeting last night, council said Shine Lawyers had subpoenaed postal addresses for the mail out and the information had been sent to the Federal Court on Monday.
Alderman John Raynor said he was concerned the information could be kept in their own database.
“What controls are in place?” he said.
Katherine Mayor Fay Miller said council had no option but to supply the information.
More reading: PFAS in Katherine – a grim timeline
Shine Lawyers filed an “open” class action – meaning that anyone who fits within the ‘class definition’ is part of the class action, but residents who want to “opt out” will be allowed to.
“As is usual in any class action, the court requires that all group members captured by the class action are given the opportunity to opt out of the action,” Shine Lawyers’ special counsel for class actions Joshua Aylward said.
“The most accurate way to do this is to communicate it directly to each group member.
“With the consent of the Commonwealth, the court has approved leave to issue the subpoena to Katherine [Town] Council to obtain the details of all of the group members in the contaminated area for the purposes of sending a notice to each of these people in the region to notify them of the proposed common fund and opt out application.
“The matter is before Her Honour next Tuesday on the October 30 to finalise the content of the notice which will be sent out to all of those within the investigation area.
“Any information received from the council can only be used for the purposes for which leave was granted which in this case is for the distribution of the court approved notices,” he said.
Residents can expect to receive these notices before the end of the year.
The Katherine class action follows the launch of a class action in Oakey by Shine Lawyers against the Department of Defence.
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