Lisa Norris
Since 2002 Lisa has practiced exclusively in the area of life insurance, predominantly in relation to life risk disputes but also in matters involving reinsurance and superannuation issues. During this time, she has had carriage and conduct of numerous significant litigated matters through various Australian jurisdictions, several of which have become landmark cases. Since 2022 Lisa has been recognised in Best LawyersTM Australia for her work in Insurance Law.
Lisa has undertaken several secondments over the course of her legal career, including roles as Legal Counsel, Chapter Lead and Team Leader within life insurers, and has been an author of Wickens Law of Life Insurance in Australia since 2007.
Lisa also provides advice to various life insurers with respect to group and retail life insurance claims under assessment, AFCA complaints, and reinsurance treaty issues.
Experience
Lisa’s experience includes advising:
- MetLife Insurance Ltd in a disputed TPD claim which has become the leading Australian case on the meaning of ‘unlikely ever’ in a TPD definition;
- Hannover Life Re of Australasia Limited in a matter considered to be the leading Australian case on an insurer’s obligation to provide procedural fairness;
- MetLife Insurance Ltd in a matter which is now a leading authority on meaning of ‘education, training or experience’ involving retraining;
- MetLife Insurance Limited in a successful application for orders that a plaintiff submit to medical examination, which has been cited subsequently as a key authority on this issue;
- MetLife Insurance Ltd in a successful application for rectification of a group life insurance contract, which was opposed by numerous fund members covered by the policy; and
- NRG Victory Australia Limited in a case involving avoidance of life insurance cover under s29(2) of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984, which has become a frequently cited case regarding fraudulent non-disclosure.