Arbiters of our profession

Legal practice in New Zealand is regulated. The frontline regulation is sometimes described as self-regulation. The profession itself sets the standard of practice expected of lawyers, and members of the profession are themselves responsible for ensuring such standards are met. The hierarchy of regulation is also described as “co-regulatory”, in that the…

How the system works

Stage 1A complaint is received by the Law Society's Lawyers Complaints Service. It is first "triaged" by Lawyers Complaints Service staff, then either accepted for Early Resolution or channelled onto the standard track. On the standard track the complaint is copied to the lawyer in question, and the lawyer's response…

From the Law Society

Vital role of standards committeesTwo vital roles the New Zealand Law Society fulfils are the protection of the profession’s reputation and the protection of the people of New Zealand from inferior, or even downright rotten, legal practice. Standards committees are right at the forefront of these two areas. These two roles are…

Our Profession, Our People

Former Appeal Court Judge Justice Douglas White QC has been appointed President of the Law Commission. Justice White was appointed as a part-time Law Commissioner in February. He succeeds Sir Grant Hammond, who has stepped down after nearly six years in the role. New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck…

Better copyright laws needed

Better laws are needed to ensure the world’s blind and visually impaired people get access to copyright-protected books and digital information, according to PhD research by Lida Ayoubi. Ms Ayoubi graduated with a PhD in law from Victoria University on 18 May. One aspect of her research looked at improving access for…

Guides for self-representing

Watching self-representing litigants fail to access justice has prompted one Dunedin lawyer to publish a series of self-help guides in the form of downloadable e-books. “I have seen people represent themselves who could have done a lot better if they just had access to some affordable information to help them,” Ben…

Cloud technology changes everything

“I know people have been saying ‘change is coming’ for years without it happening, but this time it really is. “’Legal tech’ is taking off around the world, as people see how technology has revolutionised other industries and professions and want to bring the same benefits to law,” says Gene Turner,…

High country hunt delivers life-work balance

Swapping a career among the high rises of Auckland’s Shortland Street for life in the South Island high country could not have worked out better for former Meredith Connell prosecutor Michael Walker. Thirty-year old Michael took on his new role as in-house counsel at Queenstown and Lakes District Council (QLDC) after…

Here come the robots…

Are these important moments in legal history? 24 August 2015: Joshua Browder, 19, unveils his UK council parking ticket appeal bot. By the end of 2015 it has successfully appealed £2 million worth of tickets from total claims of £5.2 million, and costs nothing to use – compared to an estimated…

Millennial professionals want Robo-Advice

When MBIE announced it was reviewing the Financial Advisers Act 2008 (FA Act) MinterEllisonRuddWatts decided to take a radically different approach with our submission. We were concerned that the interests of young working professionals, or “Millennial Professionals”, may be forgotten. So, we formed a focus group of six young lawyers to…

Lawyers becoming business owners

Starting your own practice? Joining a law firm? Doing due diligence? What questions should you ask? Before lawyers go into business on their own account – on their own or in a firm – they are required to complete NZLS CLE’s Stepping Up programme. Many participants in that programme say that they…

Panama Papers: implications for New Zealand lawyers

The Panama Papers hack at law firm Mossack Fonseca illustrates three vital points for in-house lawyers, law firms and sole practitioners: Law firms are a prime target for attacking their client organisations (and it is happening here in New Zealand). In turn, those organisations have some legal responsibility for ensuring their suppliers…

Workplace wellness — we can do better

Over the past 20 years, there has been a gradual rise in the awareness of the need for wellness in the workplace. However, there is still some way to go before we can say that the legal profession has a culture of wellness. I would like to explore what the current…

Drawing the lines on ‘reasonableness’

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled on 12 May that finance companies are not able to charge as fees the costs of their business that are not referable to certain identified transaction-specific steps. Following its review of the fees provisions of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA), the Supreme…

Women struggling to be recognised in law

Women are still struggling to achieve a perhaps mythical “work/life balance” and be recognised in law, Canterbury University Law Dean, Professor Ursula Cheer, told the Canterbury Women’s Legal Association (CWLA) annual meeting on 2 May. “Although things are improving slowly, numbers of female partners are too low, numbers of female judges…

Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015

After starting with an industry survey in 2010, then drifting into a pointless focus on the misuse of retentions, the Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015 (CCA) finally came into force on 1 December 2015. There will be four sets of rules depending on when the contract is entering: construction contracts entered into…

What is ACC?

Recent indications that ACC may be considering “investing” in Kiwi Bank and the proposed Ruataniwha dam project in Hawkes Bay raises interesting legal questions about the nature and purpose of ACC, how the scheme is being administered and whether the investment of surplus levies is justified. ACC is a statutory legal…

Lawyers Complaints Service: High Court upholds misconduct finding

Boon Gunn Hong’s appeal to the High Court to quash a finding of misconduct made by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in [2015] NZLCDT 27 has been unsuccessful. However he succeeded on penalty. In [2016] NZHC 184, Mr Hong appealed two decisions by the Disciplinary Tribunal. The first…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Suspension follows South Canterbury Finance convictions

Edward Oral Sullivan has been censured and suspended for three years from 29 April 2016 by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal. In [2016] NZLCDT 13, Mr Sullivan admitted two charges. The first related to the administration of a family trust and the estates of a married couple. Mr Sullivan…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Censure for serious failing

Donald Bruce Thomas has been censured by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal after he allowed money held in trust to be applied to a property purchase, acting on instructions of only one of the two trustees. In [2016] NZLCDT 5, the Tribunal also ordered Mr Thomas to pay…