Section 5O — Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW)

(1) A person practising a profession (a professional) does not incur a liability in negligence arising from the provision of a professional service if it is established that the professional acted in a manner that (at the time the service was provided) was widely accepted in Australia by peer professional opinion as competent professional practice.
(2) However, peer professional opinion cannot be relied on for the purposes of this section if the court considers that the opinion is irrational.
(3) The fact that there are differing peer professional opinions widely accepted in Australia concerning a matter does not prevent any one or more (or all) of those opinions being relied on for the purposes of this section.
(4) Peer professional opinion does not have to be universally accepted to be considered widely accepted.

Related sections

• s 5L — No liability for harm suffered from obvious risks of dangerous recreational activities
• s 5M — No duty of care for recreational activity where risk warning
• s 5N — Waiver of contractual duty of care for recreational activities
• s 5P — Division does not apply to duty to warn of risk
• s 5Q — Liability based on non-delegable duty
• s 5R — Standard of contributory negligence

Research how courts apply s 5O

BriefBridge searches NSW and High Court caselaw by meaning — every answer cited to the paragraph.