Professional Indemnity

• Regularly assisting on the defence and settlement of professional negligence claims in various forums against professionals including solicitors, barristers, accountants, engineers and other construction professionals.
• Advising on complex coverage issues on professional indemnity claims.
• Assisting in the provision of complex indemnity advice to an insurer on a claim which involved a law firm which had completed conveyancing on two large property developments.  Issues of aggregation and section 9 of the Law Reform Act 1936 arose.
• Assisting in the provision of advice to a large accounting firm in a coverage dispute between insurers in separate policy periods as to which policy period a claim against it should fall into. The claim involved detailed consideration of policy response and strategic advice on resolution of the issue.
• Successful objection to an interlocutory application for interrogatories which were oppressive in a High Court defective building litigation – Dron v Home Design Company Ltd [2021] NZHC 2883.
• Assisting on the defence of a family law barrister in an appeal to the Legal Complaints Review Officer.

Statutory Liability

• Representing various companies in WorkSafe New Zealand and Maritime New Zealand investigations into health and safety incidents from incident through to conclusion.
• Representing a marine engineering company at sentencing in respect of charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 which arose out of a blowback event and a failure to notify WorkSafe.
• Advising on a successful enforceable undertaking application for an outdoor activities provider in the context of a health and safety prosecution.
• Acting as junior counsel together with King’s Counsel on the defence of a New Zealand grocery retailer in a proceeding brought by the Commerce Commission under the Commerce Act 1986 which was resolved by negotiated settlement.
• Acting as junior counsel in the successful defence of a transport company in the Human Rights Review Tribunal in respect of a claim of discrimination under the Human Rights Act 1993.

General Liability

• Regularly advising on liability and coverage issues arising in public liability claims including on property damage and product recall claims.
• Assisting in the provision of advice to an insurer on policy interpretation and the occurrence of property damage in respect of a defective cladding product claim.