Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Lawyers

Koffels Solicitors & Barristers represents survivors of institutional child sexual abuse across Australia. We advise on civil compensation claims and the National Redress Scheme, act on a no-win, no-fee basis, and have represented survivors before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Every enquiry is treated with complete confidentiality.

Koffels has acted for survivors of abuse across a wide range of institutions – Catholic schools, independent schools, boys’ homes, government care facilities, churches, and youth organisations. Our institutional abuse practice is led by Ross Koffel, who has represented survivors in matters involving the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers, De La Salle institutions, and numerous independent and government schools across New South Wales and other states.

In 2026, Koffels represented AA before the High Court of Australia in a landmark institutional liability matter. The Court found the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle liable under a non-delegable duty of care, overturning Lepore and establishing significant new precedent for survivors across Australia.

We act for survivors throughout Australia and can meet in person in Sydney or by video conference for clients elsewhere.

Many survivors find the first call the most difficult. We understand that. When you contact Koffels, you will speak with a lawyer who works in these matters every day. There is no obligation to proceed.

A typical matter progresses as follows:

Initial consultation – A confidential discussion about what happened, the institution involved, and what your legal options may look like. This is free and without obligation.

Assessment – We review the circumstances, identify the institution and any successor or insurer, and give you an honest view of the available pathways and realistic outcomes.

Statement and documentation – If you decide to proceed, we take a detailed personal statement and gather relevant records. This includes documents from the institution and medical or psychological records where relevant.

Claim or advice — Depending on your circumstances, we progress a civil claim, advise on the Redress Scheme, or assist with both. We act as your advocate throughout. You will always know what is happening and why.

The average civil matter takes up to 2.2 years from instruction, though this varies depending on documentation, expert assessments, and the institution involved. We keep you informed at every stage.

All enquiries are treated in strict confidence. If your matter proceeds to court, we can seek orders that protect your identity, including the use of anonymised initials in court filings. In appropriate cases, suppression orders may be available. We will discuss these options with you at the outset.

Koffels has been acting for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse since 2010. Over the last five years alone, we have taken on over 950 matters, helping clients pursue claims against schools, churches, boys’ homes, youth detention centres, sporting organisations, and government institutions right across Australia.

We file formal legal proceedings in the vast majority of matters we take on. That doesn’t mean your case will end up in a courtroom; very few do, and most resolve through mediation. But there is a significant difference between negotiating while proceedings are underway and making an informal approach without them. Institutions take claims more seriously, and their offers reflect that when they know the firm across the table is genuinely prepared to go all the way if the outcome isn’t fair.

We have also spent years developing a more thorough method for determining what a claim is actually worth. Earlier in this area of law, compensation was often calculated on a narrow basis: what happened and the immediate aftermath. What got left out was everything else, the career that never happened, the decades of treatment costs, the compounding effect of trauma on a person’s entire life from that point forward. We factor all of that in. It takes more work, but it produces substantially better outcomes for clients.

In some cases, we have also secured a formal written apology from the institution as part of the negotiated outcome, in addition to the financial settlement, not instead of it. The money is always the main objective. But for some clients, having the institution put in writing that what happened was wrong and that it was their responsibility matters enormously. Where that’s important to a client, we pursue it.