Project No. 36(I)

Commenced: 1982
Completed: 1982

The reference arose as a result of community concern that sufficient legal recourse be available to persons suffering asbestos-related diseases. It followed a spate of diagnoses of individuals who had resided in Wittenoom and other asbestos mining areas in Western Australia. The Attorney General requested that the Commission give urgent consideration to the issue of latent personal injury and disease in the context of limitation of actions. The Commission had already received a general reference to review the law relating to limitation and notice of civil actions, referred in 1972. Because of the urgency of this new reference, the Commission decided to split the reference into two parts.