Lawyer Kevin Banks-Smith will be in
Camera IconLawyer Kevin Banks-Smith will be in Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Fire victims meeting

Sally McGlewHills Avon Valley Gazette

The legal information session, to be held by Slater and Gordon lawyers on Tuesday April 28, will follow on from a community meeting in March where about 50 people heard about their legal rights.

Bushfire litigation lawyer Kevin Banks-Smith said meeting with property owners who had suffered losses was an important part of investigating legal action and he looked forward to another session in the community.

"We think there is a strong merit for a lawsuit and that Western Power has a case to answer in terms of its possible negligence around the cause of the fire," Mr Banks-Smith said.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

"A significant part of our process is to meet with fire-affected residents, hear about their losses and talk about any needs they have to rebuild their lives after the fire."

"There was a strong call at the meeting last month for us to come back to the community, meet with more property owners and provide an update on our investigations and how legal action could help them," he said.

Tuesday's meeting will be held at 7pm at the Parkerville Recreation Pavilion, 580 Seaborne Road.

Given the sensitive nature of the discussion, the meeting is only open to those impacted by the fire.

Potential areas for claims include costs of fences, fire retardant building material for re-builds, loss of property value, gardens and other uninsured losses.

Mr Banks-Smith said there were numerous things which were not covered in the insurance policies and with the potential to gain more money for residents, it was worth investigating the area.