Slater and Gordon is calling on the State of NSW to stop fighting young people on money and start resolving claims, as the State appeals a landmark ruling on unlawful strip searches carried out by NSW Police at music festivals over the period July 2016 to July 2022.
Thousands of people went to festivals expecting a day of music and friends. Instead, many say they were ordered to undress, squat and cough, or expose their bodies to strangers in uniform.
For many, it was their first encounter with police, and the experience left lasting humiliation and fear.
In 2025, the Supreme Court found that lead plaintiff, Raya Meredith, was unlawfully strip searched at Splendour in the Grass in 2018, and she was awarded $93,000 in compensation.
The Court also found police had treated strip searches at festivals as a routine tactic and identified serious failures in police training and supervision.
These organisational failings of NSW Police mean Raya and group members are entitled to further compensation by way of exemplary damages, with those amounts yet to be quantified by the Court.
Slater and Gordon Class Actions Associate Jordyn Keating said the State’s appeal is not about clearing police wrongdoing, assumptions about drug use at festivals or the proper exercise of police strip search powers – it is largely about reducing the compensation owed to the thousands of people unlawfully strip searched.
“This appeal is not about the police fighting drugs or saving lives. It’s about the State of NSW trying to pay less to Raya and the thousands of young people who were put through degrading and deeply invasive strip searches,”
She said this judgment was an important moment of recognition for the up to 6,000 group members in the class action who say they were unlawfully strip searched at festivals across NSW.
“Young people should be able to go to a festival without fearing that they will be ordered to strip naked or expose their bodies without proper reason,” Ms Keating said.
“The Court’s findings matter because they say, clearly, that this should never have become a routine policing tactic. Strip searches are amongst the most invasive powers police have, and Parliament made clear they were only to be used in serious and urgent circumstances, and only then with strong safeguards to protect the human dignity of those being searched.”
Recent evidence to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the State of Live Music in NSW made clear festival policing has changed, with a move away from large-scale search operations at festival entry points.
Superintendent Dunstan told the Inquiry that “the days of young people attending festivals and going through a gauntlet of police lined with drug dogs are behind us”.
“We welcome the move away from young people attending festivals going through, as the NSW Police described, ‘a gauntlet of police lined up with drug dogs,’ but these changes can’t undo what happened to Raya and thousands of other young people,” Ms Keating said.
“They deserve to have their experiences be recognised and be fairly compensated.”
Having now ceased the widescale practice of conducting unlawful searches at music festivals, Slater and Gordon calls upon the State to quickly resolve this proceeding once its appeal has been determined.
“We don’t want to see NSW taxpayers burdened with further litigation once these matters are resolved, and the Court system shouldn’t be clogged up with thousands of identical claims,” Ms Keating said.
“This shameful chapter in policing history should be quickly and sensibly resolved, once the State’s appeal has been completed. The State should now focus on making this right, not on cutting back what it has to pay to the people it has wronged.”
Samantha Lee, Redfern Legal Centre Assistant Principal Solicitor, said, “The significant class action judgment regarding strip searches, delivered by Justice Yehia, still stands.
“The majority of this judgment will remain intact even after the appeal process concludes, as the appeal primarily focuses on the amount of damages and confined legal issues.
“Justice Yehia acknowledged the serious nature of strip searches, recognising the humiliation, degradation and trauma that people endure when subjected to them. It is time for the government to do the right thing and provide the compensation that people deserve.
“The judgment made clear these powers must be used lawfully and only as a last resort. No one should be subjected to an unlawful strip search – at a festival or outside a festival setting.”
You can get more information on the class action here.