LawTalk issue 913
Along with information on court and tribunal hours over the holiday period, the December issue of LawTalk features updates on developments in the law, billing guidance, our new Tikanga and Ture section, articles on access to justice and technology, plus details of new legal information products.
Changing the way we argue: Part 3 – Arguments-as-war and mediation
The current adversarial dispute resolution paradigm has significantly constrained the way that mediation has developed. Let’s look at some examples.
The traditional one day, late stage mediationResearch by Grant Morris of Victoria University indicates that 94% of all commercial mediations in New Zealand are conducted using the traditional one-day mediation model…
Community mediation services pilot in South Auckland
The word going round about its new mediation service was all that was needed for a South Auckland community law centre to receive cases from the courts to work on.
The Community Legal Services South Trust launched its community mediation services pilot in October.
The trust is one of 24 community law…
Let’s relax the ban on employed lawyers doing other work
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 bans employed lawyers from doing legal work outside their employment, other than through community law centres. Breaching the ban means a lawyer is deemed by the Act to be guilty of professional misconduct.
The ban significantly limits the scope for employed lawyers to aid access…
How to truly enjoy your holiday
During the Christmas and New Year holidays, how can you make sure you don’t waste your time off stressing about work?
There’s no point heading to the beach if you’re going to spend all your time stewing over how much work you think you should be doing, or you’re too busy…
From tempting idea to weighty tome
Feminist Judgments Aotearoa is a collection of key New Zealand judgments that have been re-written in a way that a feminist judge might write them. It is a weighty tome that has something of value to offer any reader curious about how a set of ostensibly neutral legal principles can…
The Victoria University of Wellington Māori Law Students’ Society and its inspiring initiatives
Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōna te ngahere
Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga, nōna te Ao
The bird who feeds on the miro berry has the forest
The bird who feeds on knowledge has the worldFor me, one of the real joys of teaching at…
‘Tis the season of summer clerks
Hello, lovely summer clerks. As you undertake your first work in the legal industry proper, allow me to extend a warm welcome to you, in the form of a non-exhaustive list of things to keep in mind as you go about your clerkship.
This column was inspired by researching what advice…
Practical tips on conducting customer due diligence
When lawyers become reporting entities under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime from 1 July 2018, a key ongoing obligation will be to conduct “customer due diligence” (CDD) on relevant clients.
The AML/CFT Act itself sets out when and how to conduct CDD, but those rules are…
Focus on New Plymouth
The city of New Plymouth has a population of around 57,000, while the wider New Plymouth district has a population of about 74,000.
Garry Anderson moved from Wellington to New Plymouth in 2004, giving up his role as a principal at Chapman Tripp in Wellington, where he was doing a lot…
Long-time Community Law chair steps down
A lawyer credited with playing a leading role in solving a funding crisis for Community Law o Aotearoa (CLCA) is stepping down as its co-chair.
Cameron Madgwick is ending his work with Community Law Centres o Aotearoa after over 20 years involvement with the organisation. He’ll also cease being co-chair of…
Pathways in the Law: Cooper Legal
About 99% of the work the lawyers at Cooper Legal do is around historic abuse and associated human rights claims.
And they’ve reached at least 700 settlements for victims of abuse who were in state care as children.
“That figure would be a conservative estimate,” says Cooper Legal principal Sonja Cooper.
The Wellington-based…
Update
Dealing with the Commerce Commission - Voluntary or involuntary?
An important consideration for lawyers in advising clients subject to Commerce Commission investigations is how to deal with requests made by the Commission for the client to provide information on a voluntary basis or to attend a voluntary interview with the Commission.
Depending on the particular case there can be significant…
‘Eminem’ case throws up some important issues
As a younger colleague said, it is sometimes surprising how much some people know about music. Also surprising can be how judges can absorb tremendous amounts of technical evidence, terms of art, and even street language, and turn the whole lot into a readable, absorbing judgment that covers a wide…
Lifting our human rights game
New Zealand’s parliamentary scrutiny of its international human rights obligations will be evaluated in a new Law Foundation-backed study.
This follows criticism that New Zealand is lagging behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in formally monitoring compliance with human rights treaties.
New Zealand does not have a specialist…
Enforcing restraint of trade clauses in franchise agreements
Franchising is only attractive to franchisors as a method of business expansion if they can retain and exercise control over the use of their brand, their system and the way in which their products and services are to be delivered. Ensuring franchisees are bound by a restraint of trade clause,…
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…
It goes without saying that perjury is greatly detrimental to the effective administration of justice. Section 108 of the Crimes Act 1961 provides that perjury is an assertion made in judicial proceedings that is known to be false, and made with the intention to mislead. It is considered a serious…
GDPR compliance in four steps
Privacy and data protection may not matter to many outside of Europe. But this will change on 25 May 2018 when new EU privacy laws will coerce global businesses with links to the continent to comply with the General Data Protection Rules (GDPR).
These new rules will impact on any international…
From Russia with Love (and Trust) - Russian oligarch fails to conceal assets in New Zealand trust structure
In the recent decision JSC Mezhdunarodniy Promyshlenniy Bank v Pugachev [2017] EWHC 2426 (Ch), Birss J of the High Court of England and Wales held that the settlor of five New Zealand foreign trusts retained beneficial ownership of the trust assets, leaving those assets open to a claim by creditors.
Who…
Practice
Sexual harassment in the NZ legal workplace
There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the harassment that many women have to endure in the course of pursuing their careers – in acting, politics, IT, and the professions. We know, of course, that women also endure sexual harassment in the legal profession here in…
The fine art of billing: What you really need to know
Because law is as much a business as a profession and the billable hour is a critical part of that, handling the time recording/billing aspect of one’s practice is a core capability for lawyers. As one of my former partners once said; “I’m going off to man my billing station…
First impressions: enhancing your Terms of Engagement
First impressions can be everything.
“Business owners often spend a great deal of time and resources on keeping their existing clients, by cultivating good relationships and maintaining a high standard of customer service. Consistently making a strong first impression is essential to gaining new customers and clients, what every business must…
The disruptors are coming
They are invading every industry! You have been warned!
In fact, they are already here amongst us…
Helen MackayIt may be the impact of Halloween occurring when this article was being finalised, but it seems easy to fall prey to a gothic horror vibe when describing recent trends in the delivery of…
Time for a CPD warrant of fitness
Recently I received in the mail a friendly reminder that my car needs a service and WOF. And, like your vehicle, it’s important to have regular check-ins with how your CPD is progressing and if anything needs servicing. We know from experience that if we have neglected that maintenance then,…
Technology
What to do if you’re hacked
Unfortunately, when it comes to protecting us from ourselves, technology often lags behind the bad guys.
We finally seem to have defeated spam and email viruses, but it took long enough. I still receive hundreds of spam messages a day, but my spam filter is good enough to catch almost all…
Wagbot uses chatbot technology
In May 2017 Community Law Wellington and Hutt Valley, along with tech developer Matthew Bartlett, launched Wagbot: a natural language interface, or ‘chatbot’, designed to provide information on several school-related legal and societal subjects.
Mr Bartlett began developing Wagbot over the 2016 Christmas break, but had worked with Community Law Wellington…
MyAdvice.Legal
How legal services are being delivered has been going through an online revolution for some time and a new website where people seeking legal advice can target a lawyer with the specific legal skills is the latest in the evolution.
MyAdvice.Legal was created by Mai Chen of Chen Palmer Partners.
“We have…
Legal Information
New legal books received
The 14 chapters and 18 contributors consider the key ideas, principles and frameworks defining New Zealand’s criminal justice system. The editors say their objective is a book which not only serves as a key resource for students, but which is also of value to practitioners in the criminal justice field.…
New Zealand Women’s Law Journal Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine
The first edition of the New Zealand Women’s Law Journal – Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine was launched on 27 November 2017.
The brainchild of Ana Lenard, an associate at Auckland law firm Gilbert Walker, and Allanah Colley, a judges’ clerk at the Wellington High Court, the Women’s…
Lawyer Complaints Service
Lawyers and Conveyancers need to co-operate, says LCRO
It is incumbent on lawyers and conveyancers to carry out their duties to their clients in a “spirit of co-operation”.
This was stated by the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) in upholding the decision of the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers (NZSoC) Standards Committee to take no further action on a…
Censure and fine for sharing Landonline password
A lawyer has been censured and fined $8,000 by a lawyers standards committee for sharing his Landonline digital certificate password.
The Registrar-General of Land asked the Lawyers Complaints Service to investigate the lawyer, Seyton, after he shared the password four times.
Seyton accepted that he breached the digital certificate terms and that…
Conduct failed competent, ethical and responsible behaviour test
A lawyer, Lennox, has been censured for breaching his fiduciary duties to a client both as her lawyer and as her attorney.
Lennox’s conduct was “derelict to such a degree” that it satisfied the test of what was expected of “competent, ethical and responsible practitioners,” the lawyers standards committee said. It…
Failed to complete a retainer
A lawyer who failed to complete a retainer and comply with directions from a court has been censured and fined $2,000 by a lawyers standards committee.
This fine is the maximum provided in the Law Practitioners Act 1982, which covers penalties for conduct before 1 August 2008.
The lawyer, Gadshill, acted for…
Failed to respond to client in timely manner
A lawyer who failed to respond to his client’s enquiries in a timely manner has been reprimanded and fined $1,000 by a lawyers standards committee.
The lawyer, Woodville, was acting on immigration issues for a client, Mr J, and the client’s partner, Ms K.
Woodville applied to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) for…
Failure to pay costs results in censure
A lawyer has been censured for failing to pay a lawyers standards committee’s $1,500 costs order.
In December 2012, the standards committee made a determination on a complaint against the lawyer, Berkeley. That determination found unsatisfactory conduct by Berkeley. The committee made a penalty determination in March 2013.
Both parties sought a…
Lawyer’s conflict of interest
A lawyer has been censured for advising clients at the same time as lending them funds.
The lawyer’s conduct relating to the lending “constitutes unsatisfactory conduct,” the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) said.
The lawyer, Tressell, was a trustee of the H Family Trust. Mr and Mrs H were the other two…
Tardy lawyers censured over delayed application
Two lawyers have been censured for failing to act in a timely manner for the same client.
A lawyers standards committee determined that this failure by each of the lawyers was unsatisfactory conduct.
The client contacted the first lawyer, Coleville, in December 2014 about a debt of $16,200 owed to the Ministry…