Is access to justice as available as it should be?

Highly experienced employment lawyer Kathryn Beck is the new face of the New Zealand Law Society, having taken the reins as the President on 15 April. At 47, she is one of the youngest people to take office and just the third woman to do so since the organisation was established…

From the Law Society

Challenges to the rule of law“Shortage of money is one of the big issues which in many countries today confronts the rule of law in general, and access to legal advice and representation, and hence the legal profession, in particular. And in the long run it could risk undermining public…

Our Profession, Our People

Tauranga Queen’s Counsel Paul Mabey has been appointed an Acting District Court Judge with a jury warrant to be based initially in Tauranga then in Rotorua. Judge Mabey was sworn in on 28 April in Tauranga. Mr Mabey practised as a litigation solicitor for 18 years in Christchurch, Palmerston North…

Law wins the career battle

Growing up in the small villages of Magiagi and Vaiusu near Samoa's capital, Apia, Wellington criminal defence lawyer, Ken Ah Kuoi says he never dreamt he would one day be practising law in New Zealand's bustling capital. Ken Ah Kuoi grew up in a family with strong roots in the Catholic…

Tell the judge where to go

When Ben Paradza was a High Court judge back in Zimbabwe he was entitled to a luxury Mercedes but now, 10 years after coming to New Zealand as a refugee, he drives a very tidy, but comparatively small black Toyota. And he drives it a lot. Although he has been admitted…

New Women’s Advisory Panel member

Christchurch lawyer Stephanie Mann has been appointed to the New Zealand Law Society’s Women’s Advisory Panel. A senior solicitor with Duncan Cotterill in Christchurch, Ms Mann practises in civil litigation. Her main areas are insurance, estates, trusts and health and safety. Ms Mann joined Duncan Cotterill in September last year. In her…

Lawyers are humans too

Minter Ellison Rudd Watts senior solicitor Alisaundre van Ammers recently returned from India a qualified yoga teacher, with a dream of bringing the stress-reducing performance-improving practice to her colleagues. She shares the story of her own journey to mindfulness, and offers lawyers some practical tips to help them get the…

Future wealth

In this article I’m going to focus on the accumulation of wealth. Money personalities and the importance of rational (unbiased) and informed decision-making have been discussed previously. It’s now time to see where lawyers are at with their money. Do they have a considered strategy in place for making their…

Do I really need to be tweeting?

Twitter is 10 years old. From the first tweet by co-founder Jack Dorsey on 22 March 2006 ("just setting up my twttr") it has grown into one of the biggest social media platforms. Twitter now earns around US$2.2 billion a year and has about 305 million monthly active users. Katy Perry…

Court penalises investor after OIO investigation

Lawyers who give poor advice “can expose clients to significant legal liability,” Overseas Investment Office (OIO) Group Manager Annelies McClure says. This is because it is clients that are responsible for complying with the law. “They can’t hide behind their lawyer’s advice if things go wrong,” Ms McClure says. This was highlighted…

Rise in District Court jury trial caseload

District Court jury trial caseload is on the rise, Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue says. “This is particularly noticeable with a surge from September 2015 to March 2016, due to increases in new business,” Chief Judge Doogue says. “There are currently 1,928 cases on hand, which is 213 or 12% more…

New practising fees, levies and contributions

The New Zealand Law Society Council has set practising fees, levies and contributions for the 2016-17 year, which remain unchanged, except for a $10 increase in the Legal Complaints Review Officer levy. Following the Council adopting the resolutions on fees, levies and contributions at its meeting on 15 April, two of…

Can artificial intelligence ever give legal advice?

Since my previous article on machine learning and the future of law (LawTalk 873), artificial intelligence (AI) has made another major breakthrough. In March this year, AlphaGo, the super computer built by Google, won a historical match against world champion Lee Sedol in the game of Go, a board game invented in…

Judge’s pack demonstrates the power of information

Good information should be the starting point for determining all matters that come before the courts. People in positions of authority tasked with making hefty, sometimes life-changing or life-saving decisions and whether to place restrictions on individual freedoms need access to as much quality information as possible before reaching those decisions. It…

New books

Health and Safety at Work in New Zealand: Know the LawBy Rachael Schmidt-McCleave and Stacey Shortall Following the coming into force of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 on 4 April 2016, this has been written as a guide to the new legislation. The Act is not included but…

Non-trustee powers of appointment and removal – fiduciary or not?

Until recently, there was no New Zealand appeal court authority on whether powers of appointment and removal of trustees are fiduciary in the hands of a non-trustee. In Carmine v Ritchie,1 the High Court found a general fiduciary flavour where the powers had been conferred on a person who was a…

LCRO facing backlog of major proportions

Despite a decline in applications to the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) in the year to 30 June 2015, the backlog of cases has reached such a proportion that making inroads into this backlog has been insignificant. This is stated in the LCRO’s report for the year to 30 June 2015,…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Suspended for taking money

Angela Bean has been suspended until 17 July 2018 by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal after she admitted taking $2,000 which should have been paid to the firm employing her. The Tribunal also censured Ms Bean in [2016] NZLCDT 7. Ms Bean represented a couple in what came…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Lawyer fined for placing obligations to client at risk

A lawyer who signed a consent to be included as a protected person in his client’s application to the Family Court has been reprimanded and fined $1,000. After a lawyers standards committee reprimanded the lawyer, B, he sought a review by the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO). B was acting for a…