If you can twerk, you can work
Recently my social media accounts have been filled with people commenting and asking their personal injury lawyer about the recent case of Baldock-Davis v Popham & Anor1, which sported the headline “Twerking costs Gold Coast soccer star $600K payout” on News.com.au.
For those not familiar with the case, let’s quickly re-cap the facts:
On 4 July 2019, 20-year-old Meah Baldock-Davis was injured when she was struck from behind by a car while walking along Sunshine Boulevard in Broadbeach Waters, Queensland. Meah was flipped onto the bonnet and windscreen before falling off the car. A wall that had been damaged in the collision then fell on her while she was on the ground.
Meah suffered serious injuries – an undisplaced fracture of her C7, an L3 left transverse process avulsion fracture which was significantly displaced, an L4 avulsion fracture, a T2 fracture, 3 fractured ribs, multiple pelvic contusions, a pneumothorax, a left foot and toe injury as well as surgical scarring.
Meah commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland seeking compensation of more than $650,000.00 and her trial started on 14 December 2022. It ran for 3 days and the judgment in her matter was delivered on 23 February 2023.
During the trial, Meah’s credibility and reliability was challenged on the basis that she had overstated the nature and extent of her symptoms and the impact of those symptoms upon her capacity to undertake her daily activities.
There were differences between Meah’s reporting of symptoms to medico-legal experts versus what she told her treating professionals and differences between the reporting of her work capacity to medico-legal experts as opposed to the actual hours she worked.
Prior to her car accident Meah had been a talented soccer player competing in Division 1 on the Gold Coast. Immediately following her accident, she had been unable to return to playing soccer because of her injuries. Her subsequent return to playing competitive soccer was seen as inconsistent with her own evidence as to the nature and severity of her symptoms from the incident. She was seen on video footage playing without any apparent restriction, including running, kicking and heading the ball and throwing the ball with both her arms extended overhead.
Perhaps the most sensational part of the story was the reporting of the social media evidence that was tendered at the trial by the Defendants. That evidence included footage of Meah and her brother playing and wrestling on a jumping castle, travelling to Bali where she went quad biking and rafting, and attending an end of season trip to the Sunshine Coast with members of her soccer team where she took part in a “granny pub crawl”.
Footage from this trip showed Meah sitting on a wheelie walker as it rolls backwards into a garden resulting in her falling on her back. At another point, she can be seen “twerking” while holding the handles of the wheelie walker before placing her right foot onto the walker, placing her hand on her lower back and exclaiming “Oh, my back”. Meah then continues “twerking” and looking towards the camera while her teammates laugh.
Justice Cooper formed the view that Meah’s evidence was unreliable and that she had, whether consciously or not, overstated the ongoing effects of her injuries. She was awarded the sum of $40,635.44.
So why is Meah entitled to any compensation at all?
Having read all of that in the newspaper, members of the public are scratching their heads and asking “If Meah is still entitled to compensation then please help me to understand – how are compensation claims calculated by a court?”
Damages is the word used to describe the sum of money that a court awards an injured person when they are successful in their personal injury claim. Although the damages will normally be a single lump sum, the final figure is arrived at by a consideration of the different heads of damages and are generally broken down into the following categories:
- 1. General Damages – also known as non-economic loss and includes pain and suffering, loss of amenities, disfigurement and/or loss of expectation of life;
- 2. Economic loss - Lost income and superannuation;
- 3. Care and assistance provided by others; and
- 4. Special Damages – these include out-of-pocket expenses such as medical expenses, travel expenses, medication and so on.
The Defendants admitted liability for this accident but defended the claim on the basis that Meah’s injuries were minor and that she had fully recovered. Despite some of the more colourful and controversial aspects of this motor vehicle accident claim Meah was still involved in an accident where she was not at fault, and she still suffered injuries in that accident. This means that Meah was always going to win the case and recover something by way of compensation – it was just the amount of that compensation that was in dispute.
As McMeekin J noted in an earlier case of Bell v Mastermyne Pty Ltd (2), the assessment of damages for personal injury depends to a very large extent on an injured person’s honest reporting of their symptoms, the impact of those symptoms on their life, their pre-existing problems, the genuineness of effort to regain employment after injury and their capacity to maintain employment.
Meah’s credibility and the reliability of her evidence was critical where the resolution of her claim was always going to depend upon an assessment of the degree of incapacity and discomfort caused by her accident injuries. By overstating the nature and extent of her symptoms, and their ongoing impact on her day-to-day life, Meah was unable to convince the Court that she remained significantly impaired by her injuries so as to warrant a greater judgment sum.
The Court assessed her damages as follows:
General Damages – $21,510.00
Past Economic Loss – $5,943.33
Interest on Past Economic Loss – $427.91
Special Damages – $6,067.89
Interest on Special Damages – $64.80
Future Special Damages – $5,000.00
Fox v Wood – $1,621.51
What should I do if I suffer an injury in a not at fault car accident?
If you are injured in a car accident, whether you were the driver, rider, passenger or pedestrian, you may have a right to make a personal injury claim and seek compensation for your injuries. Our team of experienced ‘no win, no fee’ personal injury lawyers are well-versed in the complexities of motor vehicle accident claims and pedestrian accident claims. We have a proven track record of securing favourable outcomes for our clients. We are here to help you, contact us today.
(2) [2008] QSC 331 at [19]
