EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE

Michael’s work includes a focus on the infrastructure, transport and mining sectors where he assists principals, contractors and/or their insurers in resolving property damage and personal injury claims, often including complex insurance and indemnity considerations, and regularly acting for multiple parties and stakeholders. Michael has acted in defence of claims arising from many key Queensland developments including the Gateway Upgrade North works, the Dinmore to Goodna road upgrade project, the Safelink Alliance project, the Moreton Bay Rail Link project and the Curragh Coal Mine, to name a few.

He has experience in relation to various aviation and marine matters, including the Lockhart River aviation disaster and has run Supreme and District Court trials relating to sunken and damaged yachts. He acts in sensitive and institutional abuse claims for sporting, church and other similar and related bodies. This has included defending a local sporting club and its state and national body following multiple highly publicised incidents and the criminal conviction of an individual volunteer. Michael also acted in a coronial inquest for a foster care agency after the death of an infant garnered significant media attention and safety concerns relating to witnesses.

He has acted in flood, fire and fraud claims arising from industrial special risk and home and contents policies alike. Examples include with respect to a digger that caught fire at a coal mine, an anticipated class action filed in Victoria following the 2015 Brisbane floods, and a suspected fraud claim relating to a residential dwelling following the 2011 Brisbane floods.

He both runs and defends recovery actions for various companies, often arising from the transport industry but also in relation to enforcing contractual rights arising from indemnity and obligation to insure clauses.

He has been appointed as an independent legal expert by multiple stakeholders upon whom those entities relied to determine questions of liability and insurance between them.

He has a special interest in alternative dispute resolution and is well regarded by his clients for his commercial and strategic thinking, efficiency and resolution-focus. He is skilled at taking the most complex of cases and crystallising the evidence into the key issues that will decide the case.

Michael has achieved favourable outcomes for his clients in a variety of matters across various jurisdictions including Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, ACT and Western Australia.