Dispute Resolution, Settlement and Trial
Chris’ trial experience is extensive. He has appeared as lead or junior counsel in over 75 witness hearings in the past 17 years and more than 650 meditations and judicial settlement conferences.
The best resolutions are most often negotiated ones. Between 80-90% of all of Chris’ cases result in a successful resolution without the principal dispute ever seeing the inside of a courtroom.
This ability to successfully resolve disputes is significant. The settlements Chris negotiates for his clients are favourable, timely and often less costly than courtroom proceedings.
He continues to receive regular instructions from a number of top New Zealand and Australian law firms, publicly listed companies, private companies and high net worth individuals.
Copies of written references from some of New Zealand’s and Australia’s senior commercial solicitors are available on request.
Here are some examples of Chris’ experience:
- Instructed by an insurer to defend a failed publicly listed (Canadian Stock Exchange) technology company following the closure of its New Zealand head office and 18 subsidiary companies.
- Instructed by an insurer to defend a telecommunications company in respect of claims arising out of a merger and acquisition.
- Restraining media investigation and publication of consumer complaints against a number of high profile cosmetic and health care companies.
- Termination, re-entry and recovery against lessees on behalf of lessors in both commercial and high end luxury residential tenancies.
- Acting for claimants in two separate sets of internet defamation proceedings that involved the successful application for, and obtaining of, urgent interim injunctions to have the defamatory material removed from various domestic and international websites.
- Various copyright enforcement claims relating to computer software on behalf of the copyright owners.
- Copyright enforcement claims by franchisors against former franchisees and trade competitors.
- Acting for several trade mark owners to enforce trade mark rights and intellectual property rights.
- Acting for copyright holders in respect to claims arising out of alleged copyright infringement in the use of a musical work.
- Enforcement of patent rights.
- Reckless trading actions against various directors on behalf of a liquidator and several creditors.
- Resolving trade practices and passing-off disputes between various commercial competitors in both New Zealand and Australia.
- Acting for taxpayers in the resolution of taxation disputes and prosecutions by the Inland Revenue Department.
- Acting for vendors in respect to a $12.5m sale of rural land, involving the cancellation of the sale and purchase agreement as a result of deception as to the identity of the purchasers and a subsequent claim by a third party in relation to a first right of refusal.
- Enforcing restraint of trade agreements.
