Senior Associate
Alison Hornsby
Alison is an experienced insurance practitioner with broad expertise in personal injury and liability claims, including health & medical malpractice, historical & institutional sexual abuse, public liability, occupier’s liability, product liability, property damage, police tort and catastrophic injury claims.
She has worked closely with major government and private insurers, government agencies, and private clients to assess a range of incidents, negotiate resolutions, manage risk and provide clear, analytically grounded advice.
Her experience spans both plaintiff and defendant work giving her a uniquely balanced understanding of the issues, risks and strategic considerations on each side of the negotiating table. To date, she has managed upwards of 200 health & medical malpractice matters from end-to-end across a broad range of areas including emergency department care, delays in diagnosis and treatment, intraoperative complications, radiology, obstetric and birth injuries, mental health and suicide, dental and orthodontic care, wrongful birth, cosmetic procedures, aged care, catastrophic injuries and claims under the Fatal Accident Act 1959 (WA).
Alison is an experienced advocate having appeared in the Coroner’s Court, District Court and Supreme Court of Western Australia, as well as the Federal Circuit Court of Australia at directions hearings, interlocutory applications, pre-trial conferences, and mediations, plus informal conferences.
Alison takes a cost-effective approach to all matters, informed by her background as a plaintiff lawyer where minimising cost was essential to achieve favourable client outcomes. Today she applies the same mindset in the defendant space. Where there is clear exposure, Alison will proactively seek early settlement discussions to reduce unnecessary legal costs and avoid protracted disputes.
Naturally, through her government work, Alison has a sound appreciation of model litigant principles and is committed to approaching every matter with fairness, transparency and integrity.
Alison is a member of the Australian Insurance Law Association and Women Lawyers of Western Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (2012) as well as a Bachelor of Science (Human Biology, 2008), both from Edith Cowan University in Perth.
Personal Awards/ Accreditations
Examples of Alison’s experience
- Acting in a complex catastrophic personal injury claim arising from an unsafe residential rental premises. This involved investigations into structural integrity issues, commissioning building reports and considering compliance with building safety obligations. Alison prepared comprehensive advice addressing liability, indemnity and contribution issues, and quantum.
- Defending a litigated medical malpractice claim involving an alleged delay in diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer spanning over 15 years, requiring consideration of complex dependency calculations, life expectancy issues and assessment of loss of services and pecuniary benefits.
- Defending a litigated historical sexual abuse claim involving allegations that spanned multiple placements and institutions over the course of 17 years involving multiple co-defendants. Alison assisted in conducting and preparing a detailed and methodical analysis of liability, quantum and apportionment. The claim raised complex causation issues and involved disentangling multiple causes of the plaintiff’s psychiatric injuries.
- Managing various ‘slip and falls’ and ‘trip and falls’ on premises including hospital wards, hospital grounds and public housing.
- Acting in a property damage claim arising from an electrical fire attributed to faulty workmanship involving complex liability and causation issues, requiring coordination of expert evidence, review of expert electrical reports and Australian Standards, and assessing potential recovery rights against third parties.
- Successfully resolving a highly sensitive nervous shock claim brought by parents whose child died stillborn after alleged shortcomings in hospital care. After undertaking a detailed review of the medical records, clinical guidelines, internal hospital investigation reports and witness proofing, Alison assessed risk exposure to be high and recommended early settlement discussions to avoid incurring further litigation defence costs. The plaintiffs’ lawyers expressed appreciation for Alison’s compassionate approach and the sensitive manner in which the negotiations were conducted.
- Successfully acting for a major private insurer in a litigated claim against its insured radiology practice and its contracted radiologist, for an alleged failure to properly review and report MRI brain imaging leading to a delay in diagnosis and treatment of a dural arteriovenous fistula. Alison engaged with the radiologist’s insurer/medical defence organisation, setting out the contractual and legal basis for indemnity, and ultimately secured agreement for the radiologist’s insurer to take over conduct of the proceedings. This resulted in the radiology practice being released from the proceedings effectively removing it from exposure.
- Acting in various product liability claims involving personal injury arising from alleged breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
Why clients like her
Alison's areas of expertise
Catastrophic Injury Claims
Catastrophic injury claims involve the severely injured, such as quadriplegics, paraplegics and those with severe brain injuries. These types of claims require…
Compulsory Third Party
HBA provides CTP legal defence to licensed insurers and scheme agents in Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. We combine…
General Liability
While public liability, product liability, and property damage represent major segments of the general liability landscape, many other claims fall into specialised,…
Health Law & Medical Malpractice
HBA's Health Law team collectively has decades of experience advising organisations within the health industry, across all principal lines of insurable risk.…
Industrial Diseases
The HBA team has a long history managing a portfolio of industrial diseases claims on instructions from major private insurers, self-insureds and…
Motor Vehicle
We act for various insurers in the defence and management of motor vehicle claims across Australia, including personal injury (CTP) and property…
Product Liability & Recall
A serious safety issue with a children’s toy; faulty building products; food contamination issues… whatever the specifics of your product liability issue,…
Property Damage Liability
HBA’s experience includes both large loss and small property damage claims. Insurers, self-insureds and corporations have come to rely on HBA for…
