Matthew Argue, Esq.

Mediator, Arbitrator, Discovery Referee

Matthew W. Argue, Esq. has over 30 years of experience in complex construction litigation and nearly twenty years as a full-time Construction Mediator, Arbitrator and Special Master and Discovery Referee. Based in San Diego, his he is a full-time neutral focusing on construction, insurance and real estate mediation and arbitration throughout California and cases outside of California via Zoom video conference. Mr. Argue has successfully mediated over 1000 construction defect cases to settlement and arbitrated many cases for the California Contractor’s State License Board.

Mr. Argue handles a wide variety of construction claims cases both public and private works involving airport, Port District, hotels, high rise commercial developments, local government facilities, Federal facilities, schools, water district, universities, low-income housing, residential luxury high-rise developments, large scale residential housing developments, and high-end luxury single-family homes. He has experience resolving disputes relating to change order disputes, Guaranteed Maximum Price contracts, budget disputes, construction failures, scheduling delays and inefficiency claims, termination, defective construction (commercial and residential), condominium buildings, insurance coverage and bad faith claims.

Mr. Argue serves on the mediation and arbitration rosters of AMCC Construction Mediators, American Arbitration Association Large Complex Panel of Construction Mediators and Arbitrators, and previously on the Department of Consumer Affairs California Contractors State License Board Arbitration Program. Mr. Argue is trained as a Dispute Resolution Advisor and Dispute Resolution Board member for Caltrans.

Mr. Argue regularly lectures and writes on mediation and construction law issues. Most recently, he has published multiple articles in the American Arbitration Association’s Dispute Resolution Journal entitled Do’s and Don’ts Representing Clients in Mediation, the American Arbitration Association’s Dispute Resolution Journal entitled Emotional Intelligence in Mediation: When IQ is Not Enough!, and American Inns of Court’s The Bencher Magazine entitled Work and Life Balance after Two Types of Cancer, and is a frequent speaker on construction topics, including West Coast Casualty's Construction Defect Seminar in Anaheim, California, CLM Construction Conference, MC Consultant’s Construction Defect Conference in San Diego, California, HB Litigation Construction Forum in Century City, California, Vendome’s Construction Super Conference in San Francisco, California, and to the San Diego and Orange County Bar associations.

In his construction litigation practice, Mr. Argue was Partner and Chairman of the Construction Practice Group with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves and Savitch LLP from 1989 to 2001. Mr. Argue represented both large developer defendants and plaintiffs in construction defect cases. In particular, he represented the 84 plaintiffs in AAS v. Superior Court, which was appealed to the California Supreme Court and changed the recovery of damages in construction defect cases. Mr. Argue received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1989, and graduated cum laude from San Diego State University in 1986. Mr. Argue is licensed in several different jurisdictions, including California, Nevada, Washington, Colorado and Texas.

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