The lawyers representing survivors of the Black Saturday bushfires have settled a class action worth nearly $500 million.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers say the class action is the biggest settlement in Australian legal history, with the previous record settlement set by the$200 million Centro shareholder class action.
Lead plaintiff Carol Matthews and an estimated 10,000 members claimed energy provider SPI Electricity's faulty equipment ignited the Kilmore East/King Lake bushfire in February 2009.
SP AusNet and other parties agreed to settle the action on Tuesday morning.
In her first public comments about the class action, lead plaintiff Carol Matthews said the settlement has provided a small measure of relief for those still grappling with the impact of the fires.
"Nothing will take away the pain of losing my son but today there is an element of relief and ense of comfort - that this settlement will ease the financail struggle that people are facing on a daily basis," she said.
"It was absolutely the most important thing not just for Sam but also for the other people who died in the fire. I wanted there to be a very rigourous investigation of what went on that day and what could have been differently.
"Even though generally as a family we're very private, I thought it was important the families were not just pushed to one side."
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said it hoped the settlement would lead to greater standards for corporate entities.
"One thing history tells us that corp defenders - whoeever they are -they tend to understand one language and that is money...and they're being asked to pay a very large sum of that [with this settlement].
"Eventually insurance companies will demand better standards of corporate entities."
The fire killed 119 people, destroyed 1200 homes and caused an estimated $1 billion worth of damage.
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