Knowmore Legal Service, which operates in every Australian state and territory, has helped 15,000 child abuse victims with their redress applications where they can get capped payments of up to $150k from liable institutions.

But it now stands accused of a “cookie cutter” approach to giving legal advice, failing to encourage clients to seek civil action that could have earned them hundreds of thousands, if not millions, instead.

Lead plaintiff Brian Holmes, 62, was offered $43k through the redress scheme in 2020 for the repeated abuse he suffered at the hands of two men at The Basin’s Bayswater Boys Home in the 1970s.

Mr Holmes told his Knowmore lawyers the $43k offer, with $5k for counselling, from The Salvation Army and the State of Victoria was a “kick in the guts” and demanded a review.

But the offer remained the same and he accepted it in December 2020, giving up his rights to any future claim, unaware of the potential of higher compensation through civil action.

Those who accept redress payments must release institutions from liability, extinguishing any rights to future claims.

According to his class action writ filed by Arnold Thomas & Becker lawyers in July, Mr Holmes claims the legal service directed him towards accepting the redress offer “by advising as to the disadvantages of bringing a common law claim in terms of cost, inconvenience, risk and delay, but not advising that the quantum of common law recoveries was likely to be higher than the redress payment”.

Court documents state if other victims had been given common law advice before accepting redress offers, some would have rejected the offer and launched civil action against liable institutions instead.

Arnold Thomas & Becker deputy managing partner Kim Price said child abuse survivors who got redress through Knowmore had “been robbed as a result of inadequate advice – this adds to the trauma that they have already experienced”.