Tabet (by her tutor Ghassan Sheiban) v Gett

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal from the Supreme Court of New South Wales in a dispute between Tabet, represented by her tutor Ghassan Sheiban, and Gett. The case concerned the extent of a medical practitioner's duty of care to a patient in relation to the provision of information about the risks of a proposed medical procedure.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether a medical practitioner owes a duty to warn a patient of a risk of injury associated with a proposed treatment, even if that risk is not significant or material to the patient's decision-making process. This question required the Court to consider the scope of the duty of care in negligence, particularly in the context of informed consent and medical treatment.

The High Court, by majority, held that a medical practitioner's duty to warn of risks associated with a proposed treatment is not confined to risks that a reasonable patient would consider material to their decision. Instead, the duty extends to warning of risks that the medical practitioner knows or ought reasonably to know would be likely to be relevant to the patient's decision. The Court reasoned that the patient's right to make informed decisions about their own body necessitates that they be provided with sufficient information about potential risks, regardless of their statistical significance, if those risks are known to the practitioner and could influence the patient's choice. The principles of negligence, as established in cases like *Rogers v Whitaker*, were applied to determine the scope of this duty.