Compensation Lawyers Sydney

Your trusted lawyers fighting against institutional abuse around Australia.

What you need to know

Australia has a serious problem with institutional abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed 4,000 offending institutions and tens of thousands of sexual abuse survivors throughout Australia.

A disturbing trend appeared – more than 2,500 survivors were abused in an institution managed by the Catholic Church. This includes schools and foster homes – designed to protect and nurture children, these institutions chose instead to neglect, abuse and traumatise children.

Despite the positive results of the commission, it’s estimated 60% of all child abuse survivors still remain silent.

Our Sydney & Newcastle teams are committed to fighting against institutional abuse and achieving the compensation our clients deserve. We understand the pain and emotional suffering experienced by survivors of child abuse – Peter Kelso himself experienced child abuse in foster care.

We know how hard it can be to see bad memories resurface.

But we’re here to help.

Our experience helping victims of abuse

Our team has represented countless victims of child abuse throughout New South Wales including the girls of the Parramatta Girls Training School and The Hay Institution for Girls.

The New South Wales Government opened these schools to care for neglected teens and convicted juvenile offenders. The girls were beaten, humiliated and forced to work long hours washing and ironing linen for hospitals and prisons.

The girls were known as numbers, not names.

The abuse stretches back as far as the 1940s.

It is considered one of the worst instances of mass child abuse in Sydney’s history.

In 2014, Kelso Lawyers negotiated significant financial settlements for around 130 former “Parra Girls” in the aftermath of the Royal Commission.

“Throughout this whole process, I wouldn’t have handled it without the help of Kelso Lawyers. When I felt I couldn’t go on, you were there to guide me and give me strength. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You will never be forgotten.”

– Patricia*, Parramatta Girls Home. Name changed for privacy.

Latest Articles

Testimonials

CJ

Thank you, Peter… Survivors like us live with the constant knowledge that religious institutions are not always what they purport to be – and they

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Patricia

Throughout this whole process, I wouldn’t have handled it without the help of Kelso Lawyers. When I felt I couldn’t go on, you were there

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Greg Scully

Shame, guilt and self-loathing is all I had experienced for over 30 years. Although I had made enquiries with a few different lawyers regarding the

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