Josie Dempster

Josie Dempster

Barrister 2018

Practice Areas

  • Appellate
  • Commercial
  • Common Law/Personal Injury
  • Criminal
  • Discrimination
  • Industrial/Employment
  • Inquests/Inquiries
  • Public/Administrative

Background

Josie is a barrister practising nationally in administrative law, public law and personal
injury. She has a broad practice encompassing merits review, judicial review,
discrimination and human rights, medical and professional negligence, psychiatric
injury, nervous shock and public liability. She appears regularly for government
agencies, statutory bodies, insurers and private clients in federal and state courts
and tribunals.

Josie was called to the Bar in 2018 after practising in commercial insurance and
dispute resolution at Sparke Helmore Lawyers and DLA Piper. Her background in
complex litigation informs her strategic and pragmatic approach to both advisory and
advocacy work.

Josie’s achievements have been recognised through various professional awards,
including winning the Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 – Barrister award in 2021 and
the NSW Bar Association’s Katrina Dawson Award in 2018.

Josie has contributed to the profession through her membership of committees
including the Australian Bar Association’s Ethics Committee and the ACT Bar
Association’s Health and Wellbeing Committee. She previously tutored Litigation and
Dispute Management at the Australian National University and maintains a strong
commitment to pro bono work through established pro bono schemes and her
relationships with community legal organisations.

LLB (Hons) (Australian National University)

Cases

  • KA v Linden [2021] ACTCA 22 (led by John Purnell SC) – acting for the appellant in a successful ACT Court of Appeal challenge to a sexualoffence conviction, establishing material factual and legal errors in the Magistrate’s reasoning and securing a retrial.
  • Brown v Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate [2021] ACTSC 320 (unled) — acting for the Director‑General of JACS in defending a human rights claim regarding the Director-General’s obligations under the Corrections Management Act 2007 (ACT) concerning Aboriginal Health Assessments, with the Supreme Court’s decision ultimately upheld on appeal.
  • Davidson v Director-General, Justice and Community Safety Directorate [2022] ACTSC 83 (led by Houda Younan SC) – acting for the Director‑General of JACS in a human rights challenge to the legality of separate‑confinement conditions at the Alexander Machonochie Centre (prison) in the ACT, involving complex questions of statutory construction and the scope of detainees’ rights to open air and exercise.
  • Complainant 202005 v Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn [2020] ACAT 70 (unled) — acting for the respondent Catholic Education authority and successfully defending a racediscrimination complaint brought on behalf of a primaryschool student against a classroom teacher.
  • Edwards v Gill [2020] ACTMC 21 (unled) — acting for the plaintiff in a defamation proceeding concerning the nonconsensual publication of an intimate image and associated Facebook posts, resulting in an award of compensatory and aggravated damages.
  • VPYC and CEO, National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIS) [2025] ARTA 3 – acting for the NDIA in a complex review concerning reasonable and necessary supports for a teenager with Autism Spectrum Disorder – Level 3, including contested claims for feeding therapy, nutritional supplements and sensoryregulation equipment.
  • Forrest and Comcare (Compensation) [2024] ARTA 596 — acting for Comcare in a preliminary hearing concerning whether a series of workplace performancemanagement meetings constituted ‘reasonable administrative action’ under s 5A of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth).