Record a risk against the Wrongs Act section 53 description
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the description of the risk and of the person who suffered harm, build a table against each subsection of section 53. The tool does not decide whether the risk was obvious.
- What the lawyer must review
- Use section 53 for the section 54 presumption. First confirm section 45 does not exclude the claim.
- If voluntary assumption is raised and the risk is obvious, treat awareness as presumed unless they prove they were not.
- Do not apply the presumption to a professional or health service, or to work done by one person for another.
- The lawyer decides whether the risk was obvious. The table stays on the file.
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), sections 53 and 54
Produce. A description table for the obvious-risk question. Not a decision and not a pleading.
Have ready. The risk and the circumstances, as the lawyer describes them; Whether voluntary assumption of risk is raised; Whether the claim is a professional service, a health service, or work.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The risk is a wet floor in a shop. The table records the circumstances and leaves obviousness blank. It also records that section 53(5) asks whether a failure to maintain created the risk. The lawyer decides.
Stop and hand it back when
- The table says the risk was or was not obvious.
- Section 45 excludes the claim.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the description of the risk and of the person who suffered harm, build a table against each subsection of section 53. The tool does not decide whether the risk was obvious. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Apply section 53 to a reasonable person in the position of the person who suffered harm.
- Record that a low probability, and a risk that is not prominent, conspicuous or physically observable, can still be obvious.
- Record section 53(5): a risk from a thing is not obvious if it was created by a failure to operate, maintain, replace, prepare or care for the thing, unless that failure is itself obvious.
- Do not treat section 53 as a general no-duty-to-warn rule. The definition is for section 54.
Sources
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 53 · 2026-10-23
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 54 · 2026-10-23
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 45 · 2026-10-23
Section 54(2) takes professional and health services, and work risks, outside the presumption. The common law continues for those proceedings, as section 54(3) states.
Section 45 excludes transport-accident Parts 3, 6 and 10, and workplace Part 5, from this Part.
Keep health, wage and scheme records in a firm-controlled tool. Apply ASCR r 9 and APP 11, and consider whether any breach is notifiable under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).