About Richard Douglas KC

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Richard Douglas was admitted to the Bar in 1980 and commenced practice in 1982 after working as a law clerk in Townsville, NQ. In 1998 he was appointed Senior Counsel in and for the State of Queensland. In 2013 he was appointed Queen’s Counsel. He is a member and director of Hemmant’s List. 

He practised in Queensland and interstate in civil trial and appellate advocacy, with associated advisory practice. From May 2025 (except for completion of some outstanding court appearance briefs), he practised solely as a mediator, expert conclave facilitator and in advisory practice not entailing court appearance. 

His areas of specialty are insurance law, common law and statutory liability, commercial law and statutory confiscation of criminal profits. He has a particular expertise in statutory proportionate liability in economic loss and property damage cases. 

He has conducted many hundreds of trials, appeals and applications.  He has appeared in many of the leading cases construing the MAIA/WCRA/PIPA pre-procedural and Ipp civil liability legislation of Queensland. 

From 2009 to 2011 Richard was President of the Bar Association of Queensland, a director of the Law Council of Australia and member of the board of the Australian Bar Association. 

He was chair of the Bar Association of Queensland general litigation advisory committee (from 2012 to 2022) and is deputy chair of the Association’s professional standards committee (from 2013). In 2019 he was awarded life membership of the Association. He is the editor (from 2022) of the Association’s electronic periodical “Hearsay”. He was a member (from 2011) and chair (from 2023) of the Association’s panel of ethics counsellors. 

In 2004 he was chair of a stakeholder reference group appointed by the Queensland Attorney General which reported to the Queensland government as to options available to legislatively homogenise Queensland pre-proceeding personal injury process regimes. 

He was Senior Counsel assisting the 2005 Queensland Public Hospitals Commission of Inquiry conducted by Hon Geoffrey Davies AO. 

In 2017 he reported to the Motor Accident Insurance Commission on CTP scheme claims farming, spawning legislative reform in this sphere. 

Richard is a joint author of a text “Douglas, Mullins and Grant – Annotated Civil Liability Legislation Queensland” published by LexisNexis. The sixth edition was published in April 2025. He is also a joint author of, and principal contributor to “Civil Liability Australia”, an electronic LexisNexis service treating the Ipp civil liability legislation of the Commonwealth, states and territories. He is a member of the editorial board of, and contributor to the “Australian Civil Liability Newsletter”, also published by LexisNexis. 

He is a frequent lecturer at conferences and teaches in the Masters’ course at the University of Queensland. 

Richard is a member of the Bar Association of Queensland (President 2009 – 2011), the Medico-Legal Society of Queensland (President 2016 – 2018), the Australian Insurance Law Association, the Commercial Law Association and the Australian Lawyers Alliance. 

In 2014, the Australian Insurance Law Association awarded Richard its annual Insurance Law Prize. In 2018 he was the Association’s Geoff Masel lecturer. 

He is a nationally accredited and experienced mediator. He has mediated in excess of 1,000 disputes.