Shaw and Kilcoy Shire Council
(210390, 9 January 2008)
The matter in issue in this review comprised:
· information which revealed details about the terms of settlement reached between Council and an individual in relation to a claim for damages for personal injuries
· information which comprised court documents filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland in relation to the relevant legal proceedings.
Section 44(1) – Personal affairs
In relation to the information which revealed details about the terms of settlement, Assistant Commissioner Henry considered the decision of Rees and Queensland Generation Corporation trading as Austa Electric (1996) 3 QAR 277 and decided that the matter in issue in this review:
· related to the terms of settlement of legal proceedings brought by an individual in a personal capacity
· revealed the basis on which that individual was prepared to compromise their rights to pursue that remedy.
On that basis, Assistant Commissioner Henry was satisfied that the information was properly characterised as the personal affairs of an individual and was prima facie exempt from disclosure under section 44(1) of the FOI Act subject to the public interest balancing test.
Assistant Commissioner Henry considered the public interest considerations for and against disclosure and decided that the public interest considerations in favour of disclosure did not outweigh the privacy interests favouring non-disclosure.
Section 22(a) – Documents to which access should be refused
In relation to the court documents filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland, Assistant Commissioner Henry was satisfied that this information was reasonably available to the applicant from the Supreme Court of Queensland and decided that the applicant should be refused access to these folios in accordance with section 22(a) of the FOI Act.
