Melissa Carius is a senior associate in our Insurance & Health team, having joined the Brisbane office in 2012.

Melissa advises clients on issues relating to indemnity, liability, quantum and strategy. Her specific areas of expertise are:

• Public liability
• Product liability
• Medical negligence
• Coronial investigations and inquests
• Workplace Health & Safety investigations and prosecutions
• CTP

Melissa acts for insurers, hospitals and doctors, and aged care providers.

Matters in which she has acted include:

• Advising a waste management services company in relation to a Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation and prosecution into an incident which resulted in the death of a worker.
• Representing a large rural hospital and 11 of its doctors in a Coronial inquest into the death of a patient.
• Successfully defending, during the pre-litigation process, a contractor at a major development site in a multi-party claim for personal injuries.
• Acting for the CTP insurer of a driver responsible for a fatal accident. The claim included a loss of profits claim by the plaintiffs’ business.

‘I enjoy the variety of work that I am exposed to at Barry.Nilsson. No two cases are ever the same, which keeps it really interesting.’

Alongside her role as a solicitor in the Insurance & Health Law team, Melissa has also become an integral member of Elevista, Barry.Nilsson.’s in-house training program. She has given a number of presentations on issues relating to general legal principles and also specific to insurance.

Melissa has a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Business (Distinction), as well as a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice. She was awarded the Tom Cain Mooting Trophy for 2011 from the QUT Law School and was a sessional academic at the University of Queensland, where she taught at an undergraduate level.

Melissa is a member of Young Insurance Professionals.