[1] The decision is a significant[citation needed] Australian Tort Law ruling for its holdings on the role of damages.

Lewis successfully challenged the decision to cancel his periodic detention through litigation, on the basis he had been denied procedural fairness.

Lewis was granted bail pending the hearing of that challenge, and never served his initial sentence of periodic detention.

That was because the judge found that even if Lewis had not been denied procedural fairness; he would have inevitably been imprisoned full-time upon the cancellation of his periodic detention anyway.

[4] Lewis then appealed to the High Court, asking for substantial damages of $100,000 to be awarded against the ACT for his 82 days of imprisonment.