Strip-search class action lawsuit against NSW Police to go ahead

The NSW Government's attempt to have the Supreme Court throw dismiss a massive class action against strip searches at music festivals has failed.

Facing allegations it allowed NSW Police to conduct “unlawful” strip searches, the class-action lawsuit challenges the legality of hundreds of examples of the procedure carried out at popular music festivals.

Slater and Gordon and the Redfern Legal Centre filed the proceeding in the NSW Supreme Court last year on behalf of festivalgoers strip searched by police at events between 2016 and 2022.

Lead plaintiff Raya Meredith, who was strip-searched at an event in 2016, sought compensation for the group after claiming the searches were unlawful and amounted to assault.

In a bid to block the class action, the NSW Government earlier this year sought to have the motion ‘declassed’, arguing the plaintiffs should be represented on an individual basis.

Following a protracted court battle, Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling last week threw out the state’s application and ordered the group proceeding to continue.

Justice Garling advised “I am abundantly satisfied that these representative proceedings should continue because they are the most effective and efficient means of determining the issues raised by the group proceedings.

“I have determined that the alternative to these representative proceedings, namely the conduct of individual cases by many, many individual possible claimants, would not be in the interests of the administration of justice.”

Justice Garling heard attendees from 49 music festivals were identified in the case saying “there may be many hundreds of, if not more than a thousand, individuals who are potential group members”.

Welcoming the decision, Slater and Gordon Associate Meg Lessing described Justice Garling’s decision as “a significant ruling that confirms the importance of this particular class action”.

In a statement Lessing advised “hundreds of festivalgoers have been subjected to strip-searches in circumstances that, we allege, exceed the powers of NSW Police.

“Often, these have occurred in egregious circumstances, including searches of minors or young women being required to strip in the presence of male police officers.”

“Given the widespread use by the NSW Police of strip-searches, it is high time the court is asked to consider the legality and exercise of this power.”

Redfern Legal Centre Senior Police Accountability Solicitor Samantha Lee said “strip-searches are invasive, harmful and have a long-lasting impact”, adding “we know that young people are strip-searched at disproportionate rates. We work with many clients who have been deeply traumatised by strip-searches.

“We hope that this class action will achieve justice … and lead to legislative change to ensure strip-searches only occur in circumstances of the utmost seriousness.”

In her filings to the court, Meredith alleged three NSW Police officers had been involved in the strip-search at “a large music festival in the Mid-North Coast of NSW”.

In a statement she advised “strip searches are invasive, harmful and have a long-lasting impact on those who have been subject to such a humiliating search.

“We know that young people are strip searched at disproportionate rates. We work with many clients who have been deeply traumatised by strip searches.

“These searches have become routine practice amongst NSW Police.

“We hope that this class action will achieve justice for those unlawfully strip searched, and lead to legislative change to ensure strip searches only occur in circumstances of the utmost seriousness and where there is genuine urgency to necessitate the undertaking of a strip search.”

Ultimately, the search on Meredith was carried out by a female officer who the state pleaded “had reasonable grounds for conducting the search”, namely the prevalence of drugs.

In his judgment, Justice Garling went on to say “the example of one festival, Splendour in the Grass Music Festival, which suggested that over a period four years, over 320 strip-searches were carried out.

“That suggests that there may be many hundreds of, if not more than a thousand, individuals who are potential group members. The time has not yet arrived for any precision in that calculation.”

Justice Garling also ordered the NSW Government to pay the applicant’s legal costs, with the trial of the class action expected to be carried out in mid-2025.

In May 2020, a NSW Police watchdog investigation into strip searches at events including Splendour in the Grass in 2018 and the Lost City Music Festival in 2019 found that they were unlawful.

Image: NSW Police presence at Splendour in the Grass.