Ryan Carlisle Thomas Melbourne Injury Lawyers

Ryan Carlisle Thomas in the community

We are proud to support the people and communities who support us.

With offices across Victoria and within metropolitan Melbourne, the work we do touches the lives of many people, most especially our clients of course, but also their families and the wider communities in which they live, work and play.

Naturally, as the firm concentrates on how best to help people who have been struck by injury from a legal perspective, so too do we support groups who in other ways try to help injured people and their families.

Some of the groups we support help bereaved family members come to terms with the awful legacy of a workplace death. Others are regional groups, such as those set up to support asbestos sufferers.

But aside from injury support, we regard it as important that staff across the firm lend their time and expertise to community work. Lawyers are encouraged to volunteer their time to local community legal aid groups and networks. Others involve themselves in local sporting and business groups.

For us, volunteering and financial support strengthens our ethic of service. It reminds us of the relevance of our work and the importance of never losing sight of the fact that, while we are in business, it is fundamentally the business of helping people.

Volunteering and financial support for the wider community is therefore a critical part of our culture, our philosophy and our values.

Restorative justice – coping with injury doesn’t end with a court case

Workplace death is a terrible matter. But long after the case is processed by WorkSafe or dealt with in the courts, the surviving members of the family often find it hard to cope with the event.

Restorative justice is a concept that seeks to explore the deeper dimensions of workplace death, the grieving certainly, but also the very human need to talk with others, and especially people representing the company or organisation where the death has occurred. The research conducted by the Creative Ministries Network suggests that the impact of a workplace death often leaves families, workmates and management struggling to cope with the grief and the often-prolonged legal and public process that accompanies it.

RCT is a major supporter of the Uniting Church’s restorative justice pilot project. Established under their Creative Ministries program, restorative justice attempts to better understand the ethical and emotional legacy of a workplace death. Counselling and mediation are often used to bring the bereaved family members together with managers from within the company so that, under expert guidance, the impact of the fatality can be explored, acknowledged and shared.

It is a process that sits alongside the often-adversarial legal system and can help both families and managers better come to terms with a death at work.

Our firm supports this ground-breaking research and provides assistance both financially and through the participation and advice of our experienced workplace injury legal team.