Indexation affects certain legislation

Practitioners should be aware of indexation under civil liability, personal injuries proceedings and defamation legislation from July 1.

The Civil Liability Indexation Notice 2025 and the Personal Injuries Proceedings Indexation Notice 2025 provide for the annual indexation of various monetary caps and thresholds for personal injury.

For the purpose of section 75 of the Civil Liability Act 2003 (CL Act), the Civil Liability Indexation Notice 2025 fixes the following amounts for the 2025-26 financial year:

• the threshold which determines whether a court can award damages for loss of consortium or loss of servitium (CL Act, section 58(1)(b));

• caps on general damages (CL Act, section 62(2)(a) and (b)); and

• the threshold for notification by a court about a proposed award for future loss to give the parties to a proceeding a reasonable opportunity to negotiate a structured settlement (CL Act, section 64(2)).

For the purpose of section 75A of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (PIP Act), the Personal Injuries Proceedings Indexation Notice 2025 fixes the amounts for the declared costs limit, lower offer limit and upper offer limit (the monetary thresholds used to determine whether, and to what extent, legal costs are recoverable under the PIP Act) for the 2025-26 financial year.

Also, the Attorney-General has made a declaration that, in accordance with section 35(3) of the Defamation Act 2005, from 1 July 2025 the maximum amount of damages that may be awarded for non-economic loss in defamation proceedings is $500,000.

The Declaration was published on 6 June 2025 in the Queensland Government Gazette (page 219).