About

Charbel has developed a speciality in liability and personal injury matters involving a wide range of issues, including owner/occupier liability, construction, indemnity, stock litigation and section 151Z recoveries.  He is responsible for providing high-level advise to insurers in matters involving alleged fraud committed by the insured, both in litigated and non-litigated files.

Recently, Charbel has placed a focus on professional indemnity matters, including complaints to the Tax Practitioners Board against tax accountants, architect claims, and management liability claims.

He achieves consistently excellent results for client in professional indemnity matters, and is always mindful of the potential impacts such claims have on the professional future careers and livelihoods of the insureds involved in the claim.

Memberships

• The Law Society of New South Wales

Experience

Charbel has experience across a broad range of insurance areas, with his early years focused on motor vehicle recovery work involving loss of use claims.  He has acted in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory, in appearances at hearings, pre-trial conferences, motions, and mediations in various jurisdictions.

• Since December 2021, Charbel has been seconded within a major insurance client's specialised liability team (intermediated). During this time, he has worked on various high-profile matters such as property damage caused by contaminants arising during the 2022 floods in northern NSW, cases involving sexual assault, and large fire claims.
• Davidson’s Garage v NAB & IAL – Charbel assisted in defending an insurer client against an insured who was denied indemnity in circumstance where the loss suffered occurred due to a fraud.  We argued that the fraud arose because of a breach of contract which triggered the exclusion clause.  Ultimately the matter settled at a significantly reduced sum which was a commercially preferable outcome for our insurer client.
• Extensive experience in both recovery and defendant work in motor vehicle claims, fuel contamination and large property claims, including advising on liability against council arising out of malfeasance, across most states and jurisdictions.
• Frangeskos v Zancanaro – Charbel had carriage of this matter in the Local Court of NSW which was run as a strategy case to obtain a decision on whether a negligent party in a low impact and low damage collision is liable for the replacement of baby seats.  This decision was helpful to IAG to achieve clarity on whether they are required to make payments to parties in similar circumstances which ultimately reduces outgoing costs for the insurer.
• Zaphir v Chen – MAG-000148/14 Queensland Magistrates Court (2014), at one stage this was the leading case in Queensland in relation to loss of use, which had the effect of bringing some certainty to both claimants and insurers regarding post-accident entitlements.
• Significant experience in complex liability, personal injury, and denial of indemnity advice. This includes high volume work as well as niche and contentious matters.