Jarouche v Hijazi [2015] NSWDC 207

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Jarouche v Hijazi [2015] NSWDC 207 Hearing dates: 16 September 2015 – 18 September 2015 Date of orders: 22 September 2015 Decision date: 22 September 2015 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Elkaim SC DCJ Decision: Judgment for the plaintiff for $45,512.30 Catchwords: Assessment of damages Legislation Cited: Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Zeinab Jarouche (Plaintiff) Safieh Hijazi (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: M Campbell and V Tzatzagos (Plaintiff) R O'Keefe (Defendant)

Solicitors: Brydens Law Office (Plaintiff) Vardanega Roberts (Defendant) File Number(s): 2014/00169621

Judgment 1. The plaintiff is 59 years of age. She was born in Lebanon. She immigrated to Australia in 1990. On 26 March 2011 she was a passenger in a motor vehicle which was struck in the rear by another vehicle. The plaintiff was injured. She blames the defendant for her injuries and seeks damages in this action. 2. The matter is governed by the Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999 (the "MACA"). All sections referred to in these reasons are in the MACA. Breach of duty of care has been admitted. The plaintiff claimed damages under the following heads: past and future economic loss, future paid domestic assistance and past and future medical expenses. 3. The plaintiff did not claim non-economic loss because she does not exceed the threshold set by Section 131. She has not made a claim for past gratuitous domestic assistance because of the thresholds required by Section 141B. 4. The plaintiff's schedule of damages totalled $585,368.30. The defendant conceded the plaintiff's claim for past out of pocket expenses in the sum of $5,333.30 together with about $4,000 for future medical costs. The defendant said that there should be no allowance for any other head of damages. The parties therefore had very different approaches to the matter.