Trial In Landmark Class Action Against NSW Police Over Strip Search Of Festivalgoers To Begin In May 2025

The NSW Supreme Court has scheduled a trial date for the landmark class action challenging the legality of strip searches conducted by NSW Police at music festivals over a six-year period. 

The class action launched by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and Redfern Legal Centre, is set to begin on May 5, 2025, and is expected to last for four weeks.

First filed in 2022, the class action focuses on allegations that NSW Police unlawfully strip-searched festivalgoers at music festivals. Hundreds of festivalgoers may be entitled to compensation from the NSW government as part of the landmark class action lawsuit. 

Lead plaintiff Raya Meredith claims she was unlawfully searched at the Splendour in the Grass music festival in Byron Bay in 2018. Meredith was approached by a police officer with a dog at the festival entrance and taken to a 1.5-metre-high makeshift cubicle for a search. She recounts numerous issues with the procedure, which was supervised by a female officer, including being instructed to remove her tampon and to turn around and bend over, during which a male officer briefly entered the cubicle.

She has also filed the claim on behalf of hundreds of other individuals seeking damages for illegally conducted strip searches between 2016 and 2022.

NSW Government Fails To Shut Down Lawsuit

The NSW government argued that the class action should proceed on an individual basis, but was rejected.

Justice Peter Garling said this would “not be in the interests of the administration of justice”, at the time, as reported by LawyersWeekly. 

The Supreme Court determined that a class action was the most suitable method for group members to challenge the legality of the strip searches and seek compensation, ruling in favour of the Festival Strip Searches Class Action last December. 

A 2019 report by UNSW highlighted the significant rise in strip searches across NSW over the past decade. The “Rethinking Strip Searches by NSW Police,” report found that strip searches were conducted 5,483 times in the year ending June 30, 2018—an almost twentyfold increase from just 277 instances in the year ending November 30, 2006.

Class Actions Associate Meg Lessing, from Slater and Gordon, said the trial date was a significant step towards obtaining justice for the claimants. 

“In addition to the trial date being set, Justice Garling has ordered that police produce the contact details of everyone searched by police at relevant music festivals so they can be informed about their potential rights,” Lessing said in a statement. 

“We encourage anybody who thinks they may be a group member in these proceedings to register on the Slater and Gordon website to ensure that they obtain updates about the case moving forward and any active steps they may need to take to make a claim.”

‘Invasive And Harmful’

Redfern Legal Centre supervising solicitor Samantha Lee told NewsCorp, “strip-searches are invasive, harmful and have a long-lasting impact”.

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

“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.”