Expert Opinion - High Court Update
This one-day course is designed for experienced professionals who provide expert evidence and need to stay current as the High Court’s civil procedure reforms take effect. Delivered by a senior barrister and a practised building surveyor, the course translates the amended High Court Rules into practical guidance for expert witnesses, with a focus on what will change in preparation, case management, expert engagement and trial evidence.
Description
You will strengthen your ability to present expert opinion that is clear, defensible and aligned to judicial expectations, while building confidence in the updated obligations, timetables and working practices that will shape High Court proceedings from January 2026.
Is this course for you
This refresher is for you if you:
- Expect to be engaged on High Court proceedings commenced on or after January 2026, when the High Court Amendment Rules 2025 take effect
- Want a concise update on how the new regime will influence expert evidence, including where practice may migrate into existing matters and other courts
- Want to refresh your expert witness capability, particularly around writing, conferencing, and giving evidence with precision under tighter court expectations
What you will learn
This course focuses on the Rule changes most relevant to expert witnesses preparing and presenting expert evidence in High Court civil proceedings, including:
- Why the regime changed, and what the High Court is seeking to achieve through the overriding objective and general duty to cooperate
- The practical implications of revised witness statement requirements, including tighter expectations around relevance and the treatment of documents
- How document management and the common bundle process is changing, and what that means for how expert evidence is built and tested
- What is changing in expert evidence management, including the court’s power to order expert conferences, and to direct experts to produce joint statements, potentially without legal advisers present
- Key trial and cross examination expectations, including clarification of cross examination duties
- New terminology and procedural steps you are likely to encounter as the amended Rules are implemented
What you will be able to do afterwards
By the end of the day, you will be better placed to:
- Align your expert evidence approach with updated High Court expectations
- Anticipate and plan for revised timetables and expert engagement requirements
- Produce clearer, more court ready expert material that withstands procedural scrutiny
- Participate confidently in expert conferencing and joint statement processes
Intended audience
- Past participants of Engineering New Zealand’s Expressing Your Expert Opinion course
- Engineers and technical professionals experienced in providing expert evidence
If you are new to expert witness work, the Expressing Your Expert Opinion course is the appropriate starting point.
Course format
This is an interactive one-day workshop. The programme recognises the pressures and inefficiencies that have characterised aspects of the pre-2026 litigation culture, and examines how the amended Rules are designed to reduce unnecessary cost and refocus proceedings on the issues that matter.
Participants are encouraged to contribute insights from practice, with structured discussion focused on improving the quality and usefulness of expert evidence in real proceedings.
Presenter information
Matthew Sherwood-King has been practising 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 being an expert witness in the High Court.
Dianne has practised as a building surveyor for 25 years and been 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.