Strategic Silence? The Conference

HWL EBSWORTH Lawyers / Slater & Gordon / Me

Date & Time: May 9, 2023, 9:00 AM

Venue: Slater & Gordon, Level 3, 192 Ann Street, Brisbane

Part IV: The Conference Where Silence Was the Strategy

The compulsory conference was scheduled for 9 May 2023.9:00 am.Level 3, Slater & Gordon, Ann Street, Brisbane.

On paper, this conference is described as an essential mechanism in resolving Queensland personal injury claims. Informal. Without prejudice. Designed to encourage settlement rather than trial. Efficient, even.

That description does not capture the experience.

Arrival and Substitution

The day began with what was meant to be a short pre-conference meeting with my barrister, Ben Wessling-Smith.

Except Ben wasn’t there.

No warning. No email. No explanation beforehand.

Just a quiet substitution on arrival, as if representation were interchangeable at this stage. I met the barrister assigned to me that morning, exchanged pleasantries, and received my primary instruction:

Say nothing.React to nothing.

'Righto, Ben.'

From that moment on, autopilot took over. Compliance became the goal. Be agreeable. Be numb. Let it end. Let it be over. This was not the time to be human.

Mandatory Presence, Optional Humanity

Under section 38(6) of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002, I was required to attend in person. So I did.

Attendance is compulsory.

Participation, it turns out, is not.

The conference itself was informal and without prejudice. Nothing said could later be used in court. This is meant to create freedom. What it actually creates is a space where devastating information can be disclosed with no consequence beyond its immediate emotional impact.

Which is exactly what happened next.

The Disclosure

For the first time in this entire process, I was told by HWL Ebsworth that The Southport School could not provide a complete file relating to the teacher who abused me.

Flood damage, apparently. FFS!

I was also told that multiple complaints had been made to the school about this same teacher’s inappropriate conduct with students during the very period I was being abused. WTF!

The school’s response at the time was described as “appropriate”. The teacher had been spoken to.

In 1997, the teacher was dismissed mid-term. Abruptly.

Despite the complaints. Despite the dismissal.

Despite the missing file.

I was told the dismissal was not related to the allegations.

Say nothing.React to nothing.

Something inside me locked solid.

This was not new information. This was confirmation.

And it landed with the force of a bullet. The institution that failed to protect me was once again narrating its own innocence through omission, coincidence, and administrative amnesia.

And once again, it was doing so through the voice of lawyers acting for the Corporation of the

Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane.

I remained silent.Unreactive.Compliant.

Negotiation Without Voice

I was advised to keep an open mind. The initial offer was low. That was expected. My lawyers would guide me on whether offers were reasonable. Negotiations would continue.

I did not speak.

That instruction remained unchanged throughout the day.

Say nothing.React to nothing.

The bargaining happened around me. Figures moved. Calculations were scribbled. Legal language softened what was, in essence, a financial reckoning for a damaged life.

A settlement was reached.

Had it not been, I was told the matter would likely take years to reach a courtroom. Three years, possibly more, before a judge would hear it. Years more of delay, exposure, and procedural erosion.

This was presented as reassurance.

The Arithmetic of Closure

I was shown handwritten calculations outlining what I would actually receive after legal fees and statutory refunds. Medicare was owed approximately $2,500. Centrelink, mercifully, nothing.

The “50 percent rule” applied. Costs would not exceed half of what remained.

Transparency, they called it.

I nodded. I listened. I complied.

The agreement was formalised with familiar language. No admission of liability. No acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Just a settlement. Clean. Contained. Closed.

I remained silent. Unreactive. Compliant.

What This Conference Really Was

This conference was not about truth. It was not about accountability. It was not even about resolution in any meaningful sense.

It was about containment.

Containing risk. Containing cost. Containing narrative.

And containing me.

Silence was not incidental to this process. It was strategic. The less I said, the smoother it ran. The smoother it ran, the faster it ended. The faster it ended, the better for everyone except the person who had to live with what was never properly named.

If justice has a sound in this system, it is not a voice.

It is the sound of a room full of professionals negotiating while the person at the centre of it learns, once again, that survival means staying quiet.