Paul Cogswell

Paul brings three decades of specialist litigation and dispute resolution experience to most aspects of civil and commercial litigation, with a focus on building and construction law, contract disputes and property and land law.  He also acts on professional negligence claims, company law issues, partnership disputes, insolvency law and general commercial litigation.   Paul also provides experienced, pragmatic, mediation advice as mediator to disputing parties.

Paul is a widely experienced mediator offering parties the valuable opportunity to meaningfully consider their disputes with a view to resolving them by mediation.   Paul has extensive experience in commercial mediation, as counsel representing disputing parties in litigation, as mediator privately retained by the parties and in his Judicial roles as member of the Weathertight Homes Tribunal and Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal.  In these roles, Paul has successfully mediated dozens of complex commercial cases, involving multiple parties, numerous issues, technical expert evidence and large amounts in issue.

Paul holds a Judicial Warrant as Chair of the Weathertight Homes Tribunal.  This is a specialist Tribunal set up as part of New Zealand's Court system designed to deal with the determination of "leaky homes" claims.  Paul also held a Judicial Warrant as a foundation member of the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal, a specialist Tribunal established to resolve long-standing earthquake claims in the Canterbury region.  That role, too, saw him hearing and deciding claims involving complex insurance and technical building failure issues arising following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence.