Start date:
| 10 Jun 2025, 9.00AM |
duration: |
31 hrs 30 mins |
Venue: |
Davis Ogilvie Christchurch office |
Address: |
Level 1/24 Moorhouse Avenue Christchurch |
Cost: |
|
Are you expecting to participate in a Disciplinary Hearing, Arbitration, Environmental, District or High Court Proceeding this year? Or do you simply want to improve your oral and written communication skills generally?
Engineering professionals across all disciplines are being called upon to explain their work and their conclusions in a non-technical setting and to articulate their expert opinion in a variety of situations including Resource consent hearings; Earthquake insurance claims; Local authority and public meetings; Multidisciplinary meetings and enquiries.
Learnings in this course include undertaking document and site reviews, preparation of technical reports, witness statements, briefs of evidence and appearing to express their opinion, and the basis for it, in the forums listed above.
Day One is designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to form and to express in writing their expert opinion in many contexts and assist legal advisors preparing to lodge or defend a dispute and prior to appearing before any audience, including a decision maker hearing a dispute or enquiry.
Day Two is a half-day practical session covering oral presentation techniques before the decision maker. Depending on course numbers, participants may be allocated in advance to either a morning or afternoon session to allow greater opportunity for all attendees to be “in the stand”. Registrants will be
As soon as practically possible, we will randomly allocate you to either the am or pm session. Until this occurs, we recommend that you put a full day placeholder in your diary for Day 2.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to demonstrate the following:
- Explain and identify the difference between fact and expert evidence
- Explain the role of the expert and their legal and ethical obligations
- Prepare an opinion, including a review of documentation or research, collection of evidence, and appropriate comparison with current standards/best practice
- Prepare evidence including written technical reports, defect tables, witness statements, affidavits, and briefs of evidence.
- Explain the preparation required for evidence presentation oral: attendance at public, technical and expert meetings, mediations, hearings. presentation of expert evidence in chief and response to cross- examination and re-examination.
- Explain the differences in oral preparation and presentation at various Covid levels
Target Audience
Engineers of all experience levels and across all branches that are required to produce written expert opinions or speak to their written opinions in a formal setting.
Course Format
The interactive course is delivered as a workshop across 1.5 days with a mix of information presentation, discussion, and practical activities to apply learning.
Presenter Information
Matthew Sherwood-King has been practicing law since 1984. He began his career as a solicitor for Lovells, one of London’s principal international law firms. Following some years with Bell Gully and Simpson Grierson, in 1999 he opened his own Barrister’s practice from chambers in central Wellington.
His work as a Barrister includes acting for clients on tort and contract matters; trust and property disputes; environmental issues; arbitrator in matters involving construction, rental, and valuation disputes; sub-division, planning and other land disputes and construction disputes.
Matthew is also an instructor for the New Zealand branch of the Australian College of Law legal professionals course for young lawyers and a Teaching Fellow at Victoria University Law School.
Dianne Johnson is the Director of Capital Improvements Ltd. The majority of her work is related to helping resolve disputes which might be as simple as discussing a matter on site or as complex as an expert witness in the High Court.
Dianne is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors, Women in Construction, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Resolution Institute and the Society of Construction Law. She also provides technical and subject-matter training to a wide-range of professionals in the building sector.
Co-presented by a Barrister and Building Surveyor, this course will develop your ability to express your expert opinion in a confident and competent manner, understanding the status, obligations, and legal and ethical requirements of an expert.
Are you expecting to participate in a Disciplinary Hearing, Arbitration, Environmental, District or High Court Proceeding this year? Or do you simply want to improve your oral and written communication skills generally?
Engineering professionals across all disciplines are being called upon to explain their work and their conclusions in a non-technical setting and to articulate their expert opinion in a variety of situations including Resource consent hearings; Earthquake insurance claims; Local authority and public meetings; Multidisciplinary meetings and enquiries.
Learnings in this course include undertaking document and site reviews, preparation of technical reports, witness statements, briefs of evidence and appearing to express their opinion, and the basis for it, in the forums listed above.
Day One is designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to form and to express in writing their expert opinion in many contexts and assist legal advisors preparing to lodge or defend a dispute and prior to appearing before any audience, including a decision maker hearing a dispute or enquiry.
Day Two is a half-day practical session covering oral presentation techniques before the decision maker. Depending on course numbers, participants may be allocated in advance to either a morning or afternoon session to allow greater opportunity for all attendees to be “in the stand”. Registrants will be
As soon as practically possible, we will randomly allocate you to either the am or pm session. Until this occurs, we recommend that you put a full day placeholder in your diary for Day 2.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to demonstrate the following:
- Explain and identify the difference between fact and expert evidence
- Explain the role of the expert and their legal and ethical obligations
- Prepare an opinion, including a review of documentation or research, collection of evidence, and appropriate comparison with current standards/best practice
- Prepare evidence including written technical reports, defect tables, witness statements, affidavits, and briefs of evidence.
- Explain the preparation required for evidence presentation oral: attendance at public, technical and expert meetings, mediations, hearings. presentation of expert evidence in chief and response to cross- examination and re-examination.
- Explain the differences in oral preparation and presentation at various Covid levels
Target Audience
Engineers of all experience levels and across all branches that are required to produce written expert opinions or speak to their written opinions in a formal setting.
Course Format
The interactive course is delivered as a workshop across 1.5 days with a mix of information presentation, discussion, and practical activities to apply learning.
Presenter Information
Matthew Sherwood-King has been practicing law since 1984. He began his career as a solicitor for Lovells, one of London’s principal international law firms. Following some years with Bell Gully and Simpson Grierson, in 1999 he opened his own Barrister’s practice from chambers in central Wellington.
His work as a Barrister includes acting for clients on tort and contract matters; trust and property disputes; environmental issues; arbitrator in matters involving construction, rental, and valuation disputes; sub-division, planning and other land disputes and construction disputes.
Matthew is also an instructor for the New Zealand branch of the Australian College of Law legal professionals course for young lawyers and a Teaching Fellow at Victoria University Law School.
Dianne Johnson is the Director of Capital Improvements Ltd. The majority of her work is related to helping resolve disputes which might be as simple as discussing a matter on site or as complex as an expert witness in the High Court.
Dianne is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors, Women in Construction, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Resolution Institute and the Society of Construction Law. She also provides technical and subject-matter training to a wide-range of professionals in the building sector.
Presenters
Matthew Sherwood-King
Dianne Johnson
