Settlement in Ms Dhu legal fight inches closer as class action over jailed fine defaulters takes shape

Lawyers representing the family of Ms Dhu — who died in police custody after being arrested over unpaid fines — will be in Perth next week seeking to reach a compensation agreement with the WA Government.

Ms Dhu died of complications arising from a broken rib she suffered in a domestic violence incident that had become infected.

Her death occurred while in the custody of police, who had picked her up over $3662.34 in unpaid fines and — according to a subsequent coronial inquiry — believed she was “faking it” when complaining about severe pain associated with her injury.

The horrifying tragedy, and the catalogue of inhumane treatment revealed during the inquest, were the catalyst for the McGowan Government to repeal laws allowing imprisonment for unpaid fines in 2020.

Ms Dhu’s family engaged Levitt Robinson Solicitors to pursue compensation over her death amid allegations she was cruelly treated by both police and medical staff and “dehumanised on racial grounds”.

A related class action — also being run by Levitt Robinson — claims the previous laws allowing fine defaulters to be jailed disproportionately targeted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Stewart Levitt, senior partner at the firm, said the WA Government had “ample information of the deleterious effects” of imprisoning people over unpaid fines but “persisted for many years” regardless.

He said he was aware of cases “where women were taken by police from their homes to jail, to serve out their fines, without notice and without an opportunity for arrangements to be put in place for the care of their dependent children.”

Ms Dhu died of complications arising from a broken rib she suffered in a domestic violence incident that had become infected.

Mr Levitt claimed “thousands of people had been jailed virtually without notice” and that Indigenous men were 26 times overrepresented in prison while women were even worse off at 39 times overrepresented.

The class action argues that the fines enforcement legislation was inherently racist because of the high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defaulters jailed through the regime.

Levitt Robinson continues to encourage any Indigenous person previously incarcerated for unpaid fines to join the lawsuit, which is seeking compensation for the cohort as a whole.

Ms Dhu’s family received a $1.1 million ex gratia payment from the WA Government in 2017 but the arrangement did not preclude her relatives from seeking further damages.