New Zealand Law Society - LawTalk issue 909

LawTalk issue 909

LawTalk issue 909

The August LawTalk looks at a wide range of matters relating to practising law in New Zealand. These include succession in law firms, complaints against lawyers, the coming AML/CFT phase 2 regime, handy technology tools, developments in several areas of the law, and the differing makeups of the profession in locations around New Zealand.

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Better conversations part 2: How to have difficult conversations

We live in a blame culture. When things go wrong we protect our identity (our egos) by finding somebody, or something, to blame. This allows us to ignore our own role, and to avoid considering whether we might be (at least) partly responsible for difficult positions we find ourselves in. It…

Focus on legal practice on the West Coast

The sun shines through morning mist rising from the bush at Ten Mile Creek, on SH6 between Greymouth and Punakaiki Working in a small, regional centre can be challenging and rewarding on both a personal and professional level, says Colin Smith, a partner at Greymouth firm Hannan & Seddon. Mr Smith says…

Privacy Law in New Zealand, 2nd edition

Boasting an impressive list of authors, Privacy Law in New Zealand is a collection of works which considers some of the fundamental aspects of privacy law. The editors point out that, since their first edition some six years ago, technology has advanced at such a pace that its impact on issues…

Watch out for those scam apps

In March 2017, it was reported that Google’s application market, Play Store, had 2.8 million mobile apps available for download. The Apple App Store is catching up, with 2.2 million apps available; followed by Windows, Amazon and Blackberry’s stores, respectively. At Apple’s last annual developer’s conference, the tech company announced it…

Wide range of projects for Kensington Swan pro bono team

From saving kiwi to boosting the arts, Kensington Swan’s pro bono team likes to dip its toes in a wide range of projects. Each year the team provides assistance to the Kiwi Trust, which aims to preserve the national icon and help them to flourish, and the Lake Taupo Protection Trust. It…

You, human lawyer, are allowed not to know things

I grew up in a house with a poster titled Life’s Little Instructions hung up in the bathroom. It included instructions like, “call your mother”, “return borrowed vehicles with the gas tank full”, and “know how to make homemade brownies”. All fair enough, if rather Americo-centric. I would sing the contents…

How I survived the death of my business partner

Claudia King is well known for her thinking and initiatives on the delivery of legal services online. The CEO and co-founder of Automio, she was until recently a director of Dennis King Law. Recently she wrote a blog post on the Automio website about the death of her father and…

Overcoming gunpoint negotiation as a lawyer in Iraq

Irrefutably one of the best skills a lawyer will ever take to a meeting is excellent negotiation skills, but imagine having to use those skills to negotiate the release of yourself and two soldiers in a deteriorating war zone. Australian-based criminal and human rights lawyer Rabia Siddique was a guest speaker…

Update

ACC and appeals to the Supreme Court

On 1 April 1974 at the commencement of the amended Accident Compensation Act 1972, there was a massive and lasting change made to personal injury law in New Zealand. The common law right to sue for damages was removed and replaced with a statutory system that applied to all personal…
A new Land Transfer Act

A new Land Transfer Act

The main thing I remember from the land law class I took at law school was the notion of ‘indefeasibility’, a word I have still never heard used outside land law (by way of comparison, words like caveat, and even moiety, have a place in other contexts). Fels v Knowles,…
Bank on change

Bank on change

This year marks the silver anniversary of the New Zealand Banking Ombudsman Scheme, and it is remarkable to look back on banking, and banking complaints, over the last 25 years. When the Banking Ombudsman Scheme started out in 1992, we had been dealing with our money the same way for decades.…

Commerce Commission takes steps to protect consumers from certain third-tier lenders

After a wave of investigating and prosecuting mobile traders, the Commerce Commission appears to have redirected its attention to lenders as creditors who offer high-cost, short-term loans (third-tier lenders). Since March 2016, five lenders of short-term personal loans have been ordered, or have agreed, to pay over $3 million for breaches…

Plants, Copyright and Wine — This Month’s Degustation

The least well-known of our IP statutes, the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987, is now undergoing a full review. Its two main objectives are to expand the bundle of rights protected to conform to UPOV 1991 (the governing international treaty) and to address the recommendations made by the 2011 Wai…

Thinking about the children when dividing relationship property

A recent LawTalk article by Kimberley Lawrence and Greg Kelly (Joining adult children to their parents’ relationship property proceedings as trust beneficiaries, LawTalk 906, May 2017, page 28) discussed adding adult children into their parent’s relationship property proceedings. But what about when the children are minors? Should we be thinking…

New Act has changed the liability landscape for rural fires

Section 43 of the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977 (1977 Act) was a useful provision for recovering fire losses from the person responsible for causing a rural fire. Compensatory damages could be sought for firefighting costs, property damage and any other losses that were not too remote. It was…

What is a Social Enterprise?

The Social Enterprise World Forum will be held in Christchurch this September. More than half of the 1200 available tickets are already taken, with involvement by participants from dozens of countries. In a relatively new sector like social enterprise there are often assumptions about what is actually being talked about.…

The WJP Rule of Law Index: Interpreting its results

The World Justice Project (WJP) produces an annual Rule of Law Index. The Index brings together information from a wide range of sources. The 2016 Index covered 113 countries and jurisdictions and provides an authoritative analysis of how the rule of law is faring in each. While New Zealand is…

Species-altering technologies need law fit for purpose

The Government’s Predator Free 2050 strategy is sometimes touted as depending on the feasibility of “gene drive” biotechnology, which allows an infertility gene to be introduced to a pest species with the aim of wiping it out. But Law Foundation-backed researchers believe there are many questions about how potential uses of…

Practice

Equity vs non-equity partners — what are best practices?

Equity vs non-equity partners — what are best practices?

Succession planning is a compelling issue for the New Zealand legal community as many ‘baby boomer’ lawyers are, or soon will be, retiring. This is good and bad news. The good news is that there are likely to be opportunities for younger lawyers to become partners. The bad news is…
Why lawyers shouldn’t fear commoditisation

Why lawyers shouldn’t fear commoditisation

When I first started practising law in New Zealand the law firm at which I worked charged $1500 + GST for an employment agreement. In most cases, the agreement was formulaic and based off a template which didn’t require much alteration other than in perhaps 20% of cases. I don’t…

Complaints

Complaints against lawyers continue to show decline

Complaints lodged with the Lawyers Complaints Service against lawyers have fallen each year for the last three years. Provisional information from the New Zealand Law Society’s Lawyers Complaints Service for the year to 30 June 2017 shows that 93.7% of complaints lodged were against practising lawyers. Complaints against lawyers were…
Common themes in complaints against lawyers about Conveyancing

Common themes in complaints against lawyers about Conveyancing

Property complaints seem to be a growing area of complaints in New Zealand. For the past two years, property has been the area of practice which the Lawyers Complaints Service has received the highest number of complaints in. This year there has been a 7% increase in property complaints from…

Former lawyer censured and fined

Former lawyer Murray Withers has been censured and fined $3,000 for a series of breaches relating to the administration of an estate. The lawyers standards committee dealing with the matter also ordered Mr Withers to reduce the account for estate administration by $3,000 plus GST and to make two refunds ‒…

Censure and fine for inadequate advice

A lawyer who failed to properly advise the buyers of a property has been censured and fined $2,500 by a lawyers standards committee. The lawyer, P, was also ordered to cancel and refund his $1,201 fee for work on the purchase. The clients, a husband and wife, bought a property where they…

Acting for insurer and insured was unsatisfactory conduct

A lawyer, D, who acted for an insurer and for the insured was guilty of unsatisfactory conduct a lawyers standards committee has found. The Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) upheld the committee’s decision on review. Another lawyer, Mr L, represented a defendant who was charged with importing a Class C drug.…

Lawyers must adhere to terms of agreement

A lawyer acting for the seller in a property transaction has been fined $1,000 after refusing to release the e-dealing until additional costs were paid. A lawyers standards committee found that the lawyer, J, had breached an undertaking J had given to release the e-dealing on receipt of confirmation of deposit…

Communication with all clients vital

A lawyer, N, told a standards committee that in future he will be “vigilant” in ensuring that all his clients are copied in on all correspondence. The committee was considering a complaint from another lawyer, Mr O, that N had failed to: Obtain consent from all three trustees of a family trust…

Acting contrary to client instructions

A lawyer, G, has been fined $8,000 for acting contrary to his client’s expressed instructions. In setting the penalty, a lawyers standards committee said that it considered the conduct to be at the “higher end of the scale of unsatisfactory conduct and deserving of a relatively large fine”. The client, a company,…

AML/CFT

Hang on: help is on its way for lawyers ready to grapple phase two of AML/CFT

Hang on: help is on its way for lawyers ready to grapple phase two of AML/CFT

Phase two of the AML/CFT Act is clearly going to affect how lawyers and law firms do future business, but is it as daunting as it appears? Not if you’re organised and have a plan and stick to it, is the general consensus from lawyers and financial advisors who are working…

What Internal Affairs is planning

Law firms throughout the country must prepare for the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 phase two. They’ll have to come up with a plan to ensure compliance. This includes appointing a compliance officer, assessing the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing occurring within their business, and…
How money can be laundered

How money can be laundered

A former lawyer who recently completed researching the vulnerability of New Zealand lawyers, accountants and real estate agents to being caught up in money laundering, says it is being done with ease. Ron Pol, principal with amlAssurance, is studying for a political science PhD on policy effectiveness, outcomes and money laundering. For…

Letters to the Editor

Read your own unconscious bias articles

A story on All Blacks who are/were lawyers might set the hearts of half your readership thumping and even allow them to spend a six-minute unit or two dreaming of swapping their pinstripes for a pair of studded rugby boots, but spare a thought for the 50% of lawyers who…

Property Law Section – What does it do?

It being Queen’s Birthday weekend and having missed out, again, for I don’t know how many consecutive years on obtaining an award it seemed timely to put pen to paper if for no other reason than to fill the pages of your august journal. I don’t want to seem curmudgeonly but…
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