Joel Silver

Joel is a commercial barrister and accredited mediator, with specialised expertise in construction, insurance, and property law.

He regularly advises and appears in a wide range of matters, including contractual disputes (including under Australian Standard, ABIC and residential construction contracts), Security of Payment claims, property disputes (such as easements and adverse possession, owners' corporation and lease disputes, and nuisance claims), and professional liability matters.

He has authored a number of practice papers in these areas (nuisance and trees, implied subdivision easements, briefing in domestic building matters, security of payment legislation in the building industry).

Joel accepts briefs to appear in all Courts and Tribunals, and mediates in all areas of commercial law. He has extensive experience advising from the early stages of a matter (including in arranging expert evidence) to the end of trial.

Joel is also a member of the Victorian Bar News editorial committee, an Accredited Advocacy Instructor for the Victorian Bar Readers Course, and serves on the Arbiter Panel List under section 142 of the Local Government Act 2020. He also serves on a number of community boards.

Joel is a member of Melbourne TEC Chambers, the Commercial Bar Association, the Building Disputes Practitioners Society, the Society of Construction Law Australia, and the Resolution Institute. He is also a member of the VCAT Building and Property List Users Group (from June 2022) and County Court Building Cases List Users Group (from January 2025).

Joel commonly represents builders, contractors, surveyors, homeowners, tenants and landlords (commercial and residential), owners corporations, housing associations, and business owners.

To view Joel's full CV, including some of his current activities, and to find some of his published works, you can visit his LinkedIn profile. 

A list of Joel's cases can be found here