A former Professional Services Review director is appealing a court ruling that she pay $1.98 million in compensation for referring a doctor to a committee without reading his defence.

Ophthalmologist Dr David Kitchen won his 2025 case against Professor Julie Quinlivan, the Professional Services Review (PSR) director from 2017 to 2022, after the Supreme Court of Queensland found that Professor Quinlivan did not read his defence before the committee referral.

Justice Rebecca Treston heard that Professor Quinlivan referred Dr Kitchen just 17 minutes after receiving an email with his 96-page defence in 2018.

Professor Quinlivan argued that she had printed the submission and read it four days before the email, but Justice Treston found no “documentary evidence” to support her claim.