Alexandros Katsikalis

Overview

Recognised as a skilful advocate and astute negotiator, Alex has developed a practice with a focus on complex matters which have established him as one of the leading Counsel in the fields of insurance and medical negligence. Alex has practised at the bar in Brisbane since 2011, and his practice has since expanded outside of Queensland to New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Further to his prominence in the medical negligence and insurance spheres, Alex is also widely experienced in other areas including banking, finance, trusts and superannuation. He has been briefed in several appellate matters before the Court of Appeal of Queensland and High Court of Australia.

Alex is relied upon by his clients for his ability to cut through the complexities of a matter and to identify the issues that are truly at its heart, and is known for his meticulous preparation of advices and his level-headed and innovative responses to practical issues that arise in litigation and alternative dispute resolution.

EXPERIENCE

Medical Negligence

Alex has gained a profound knowledge of medical practice over the years, and he has applied this nuanced skill set in hundreds of matters involving many types of medical negligence cases. Some examples of his experience in this area include the following:

• Representing plaintiffs in various matters involving misdiagnosis or mistreatment of spinal cord abscesses, vascular injuries, liver poisoning, fractures, pulmonary embolism, meningitis, many different types of cancer, acute bacterial endocarditis, sepsis, kidney disease and colon perforation, many of which resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements;

• A high-profile case determined by the Court of Appeal, involving a general practitioner’s failure to detect and diagnose the presence of cryptococcal meningitis, which resulted in one of the largest awards of damages in Queensland;

• Complex matters involving perioperative care and surgical errors, including anaesthetic mismanagement of patients and errors made during plastic and reconstructive surgery;

• Appearing in a High Court matter involving the duty of care of paramedics, which considered the reasonableness of medical care performed in exigent circumstances, and the importance of manuals in determining breach at common law;

• Acting and securing large settlements for child plaintiffs in complex birth injury claims. One example includes a child who unfortunately developed cerebral palsy requiring substantial future care and assistance, which resulted in a settlement for more than $12,000,000.00;

• Acting for mothers who have sustained trauma during childbirth (such as prolapse, levator avulsion, 3^rd or 4^th degree tears, or pudendal nerve injuries); and

• A significant claim involving failures by a hospital, general practitioner and radiologist to adequately treat a nerve sheath tumour resulting in spinal cord injuries. Interlocutory applications in that matter led to seminal jurisprudence on the statutory limitation of actions, and what constitutes a plaintiff becoming aware of a material fact of a decisive character.

Insurance

Instructed by both plaintiffs and defendants, Alex has appeared in hundreds of insurance cases relating to personal injuries and other liability claims, covering many different case types from motor vehicle accidents to product liability. The following are some examples of interest:

• Acting for the plaintiff in a major personal injury matter that led to a seminal Supreme Court decision about obviousness of risks and dangerous recreational activities – elements of Queensland’s Civil Liability Act which had previously lacked useful jurisprudence;

• A significant workers’ compensation claim determined by the Court of Appeal, testing the principles of the tort of negligence in the context of manual musculoskeletal injuries sustained over a prolonged period in the workplace;

• Acting for insurers in a multitude of cases, both in Queensland and interstate, applying his expertise in negotiations to deliver favourable outcomes for his clients; and

• Representing the plaintiff in a motor vehicle accident claim involving catastrophic injuries, which resulted in one of the largest settlements in the State’s history, exceeding $20,000,000.00.

Commercial Law

Alex has advised on and appeared in various matters relating to banking and finance, and owing to his international experience working in the financial sector and his degree in Commerce, he is astute at dealing with very complex financial arrangements. Some prominent examples include:

• An important banking matter in which the Court of Appeal recognised that the Code of Banking Practice binds banks and forms part of bank guarantees. This case raised the topics of agency, estoppel and the general functions of appellate courts, including the Anshun estoppel and the principles from Fox v Percy; and

• A complex contractual matter determined by the Court of Appeal involving 23 parties about a proposal to form and run a real estate company, requiring scrutiny of parties’ intentions to create legal relations, and more generally, dealing with a tension between the principles of contract law and commercial realities.

Other areas of practice

Over the years, Alex’s practice has also expanded into other areas of the law, including property law, trusts, superannuation and criminal law. The various matters he has worked on include:

• Representing the plaintiff in an intricate matter relating to trusts and superannuation which over the course of more than a decade traversed each level of the Queensland court system and was heard by several boards, the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal and ultimately by the High Court in a special leave application. Alex became involved towards the end of the protracted dispute, and was required to exercise his knowledge of trustee-beneficiary relationships and their co-existence with contractual relationships. The matter also concerned elements of administrative law and questions of natural justice;

• Appearing in the Land Court of Queensland in a matter about whether compensation was payable for the compulsory acquisition of land, requiring analysis of planning approvals, the nature of interests in resumed land, and elements of evidence law; and

• Acting for the defendant in a hearing before the Court of Appeal, which ultimately overturned a criminal conviction of unlawful killing, relying on medical evidence to show the prosecution had not sufficiently proven causation.