Night clubs are known for loud music, but there are laws that stop the noise levels from being too high. These laws protect those living around the clubs from being disturbed and protect the club’s patrons from suffering damage to their hearing. Often these laws are ignored. There are, however, three legal steps you can take if you’ve suffered tinnitus or permanent hearing loss as a result of going to too noisy clubs.

Step 1. If the club is too noisy, get out. Otherwise if you bring a claim, you will be accused of what is called contributory negligence because you did not leave an obviously too noisy environment.

Step 2. Consult a personal injuries lawyer. The DJ, manager and owners of a club have a duty of care to their patrons. This duty includes to not injure them, which might be caused by excessive noise. If the DJ plays the music too loud, then the manager and owners, as supervisors of making the club a safe place to go, might have breached their duty of care to you and have to pay you damages caused by their negligence.

If you are considering consulting a personal injuries lawyer, choose a Queensland Law Society accredited specialist. These can be found by phoning the society on (07) 3842 5888 or by going to www.qls.com.au. Strict time limits apply to claims for personal injuries. The sooner you get legal advice, the better.

Step 3. Complain. This might not make your life better, but it may make life a lot better for others. Clubs are licensed venues. They are required to have management plans to ensure amongst other things that their noise is not too loud. The Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation is the government body responsible for licensing venues. No licence means no venue. Put ting a complaint in about noise to patrons might result in the club being less noisy, or if it won’t comply, closure of the club. The Office of Liquor and Gaming regulation can be found online at ht tp://www.olgr.qld.gov.au/ .

Stephen Page is a partner of www.harringtonfamilylawyers.com and is the author of the Australian Gay and Lesbian Law Blog http://lgbtlawblog.blogspot.com