A civil stoush over a crash between cyclist Ryan Meuleman and Daniel Andrews\u2019 wife, Catherine, is headed to trial after mediation failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meuleman\u2019s barrister James Catlin confirmed on Monday the case was expected to go to trial after his client was injured in a 2013 crash with the former premier\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meuleman is suing Slater and Gordon, alleging it failed to properly investigate the circumstances of the collision at Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula in January 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawyers for Meuleman, who was 15 years old at the time of the crash, claim the firm failed to act in his best interests, and breached their obligations to him when securing an $80,000 compensation payout from the Transport Accident Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meuleman\u2019s father Peter said Slater and Gordon was unable to explain how it became involved with the collision in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His son had his whole life ahead of him at the time of the crash, Peter Meuleman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead of looking after Ryan, Slater and Gordon protected Daniel Andrews because Daniel Andrews was about to become the most powerful man in Victoria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRyan didn\u2019t count for anything to them. He was treated like he was disposable… He was just a political problem to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis crash should have had nothing to do with politics, but everywhere you look you see politics coming first and Ryan being put last. That\u2019s got to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slater and Gordon would not comment on the case while it was before the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meuleman\u2019s lawyers have subpoenaed a Victoria Police Professional Standards Command report into the crash, an internal review of the police investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe anticipate having to spend precious funds trying to get what we\u2019re entitled to,\u201d Catlin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case is due before the Supreme Court of Victoria for a post-mediation hearing on January 29 next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A trial date has been listed for May 12, the court confirmed. However, that is subject to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither Daniel nor Catherine Andrews are parties to the civil proceeding, which is between Meuleman and Slater and Gordon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a brief hearing in the Supreme Court last month, ahead of mediation, Catlin denied an accusation that Meuleman\u2019s lawyers may have mishandled documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slater and Gordon raised the \u201cpotential\u201d misuse of documents with the court, telling the judicial registrar they sought the court\u2019s guidance on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Catlin queried whether the suggestion was being made to intimidate his client ahead of mediation and burden his client, who is on Centrelink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is really behind this is the dog-whistling suggestion someone has committed contempt? So if they want to bring a contempt summons they should,\u201d Catlin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Catlin said the case itself had attracted significant public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He maintained his client had not breached any undertaking regarding documentation and recordings he received during the current court proceedings. This included the Triple-0 call made by Daniel Andrews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is costing us. This recording was produced to three experts as well,\u201d Caitlin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judicial registrar declined to make a ruling on the matter and ordered the case to proceed to mediation the following Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meuleman spent 11 days in hospital after the 2013 crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt is costing us. This recording was produced to three experts as well,\u201d Caitlin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":156070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999,35],"tags":[11283,11288,10189,993,8],"class_list":["post-156066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","category-breaking-news","tag-bikeboyscandal","tag-catherine-andrews","tag-daniel-andrews","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156073,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156066\/revisions\/156073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}