Counsel

Wayne Muddle SC has over 30 years’ experience as a specialist advocate. He was called to the Bar in 1991 and has appeared in all Australian courts.

He has a particular interest in strata law and is the co-author of Strata Law in NSW and Joske’s Law and Procedure at Meetings in Australia (Law Book Company, 2021). Muddle SC is renowned for the strategic depth he brings to litigation. Strategy is the key ingredient in dispute resolution. Courts only make decisions on what is put before them and in the way it is put before them. The process is adversarial. The parties, with their expert lawyers, control what is put before the Court and how. Strategy makes a difference. It requires a rapid assessment of the best the client can achieve and how best to achieve that outcome, with the least cost and delay. Cases are won and lost in the characterisation of the dispute.

It requires constant assessment of the current options and best choice to fit the strategy. How to use the pleadings to raise or avoid issues. How to confine or expand the scope of compellable documents, both the client’s and opponent’s. How to make and resist claims for documents. Which witnesses to put on affidavit, what to include and how to ensure that their evidence is put admissibly but in a way which limits, rather than expands, effective cross examination.

More than 25 years of running complex matters has taught Muddle SC what those decisions are, and how to make them most effectively. Winnable cases are lost every day. Poor cases are won. Knowledge, strategy and breadth of experience make the difference.