Cyclone Gabrielle information and updates for the profession are available here.
The Independent Review Panel's report is now available. More information.

Skip to main content

New Zealand Law Society - LawTalk issue 933

Page location

Home
News
Publications
LawTalk
LawTalk issue 933

LawTalk issue 933

LawTalk issue 933

04 October 2019

The Public Defence Service arose from a pilot scheme in Manukau in 2004; and has since grown to 10 offices and 250 staff. We look at its impact on the practice of criminal law. The October issue also looks at pro bono services for the Canterbury Muslim community; ponder whether law offices are healthy as people might think; and reflect on a first-ever Feminist Moot.

Download LawTalk issue 933 (PDF file, 13.88 MB) View as a flip-book ISSUU.COM

We read with interest the article entitled “New Zealand’s Oldest Law Firms” appearing at pages 98 and 99 of LawTalk Issue 932. Our firm, Berry & Co was omitted from the list of the 50 oldest law firms, however it traces its roots back to 1886 when HB Crawford first set…

Cocaine in the matchboxPolice were called to Willie Gatlin’s Florida residence after an argument between him and his girlfriend. He was charged with battery and arrested. Gatlin was only partially dressed and put on a pair of trousers which had been lying next to his bed before being led to…

Are we doing enough? The global scale of bullying and sexual harassment in legal workplaces

There’s no magic bullet when it comes to achieving cultural change in the global legal profession. A step inciting a change, is precisely that – just one step, says International Bar Association (IBA) Senior Legal Advisor Kieran Pender. The IBA launched its “Us Too? Bullying and sexual harassment in the legal…

Being a supporter: a daughter's story

My father died in July of last year, the day following his 89th birthday. He died of natural causes and in his own bed. There were many times in Dad’s life that I was not certain that those two would be possible as Dad died after living a lifetime with…

Red flags! Is your law office as healthy as you think?

About three years ago, I had a well-woman check-up and assumed I would pass with flying colours as an active, fit person. However, when my GP listened to my heart, she said “Do you know you have a very audible heart murmur?”, to which I replied “No. I thought I…

People in the Law

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Honor Kerry spent the first four years of her life living in the Shetland Islands, the northern- most point of Scotland. “My parents wanted to move back to the Scottish mainland when it came time for me to start school but they felt that, as a teacher…

For Belinda Sellars it has always been about the underdog. From her days as a junior in the District Court representing some of Auckland’s most determined drink drivers, to her current post as one of the country’s top criminal barristers, Ms Sellars does not shy away from a fight.

In July, what is likely to be the world’s first Feminist Moot was held by the Victoria University of Wellington Feminist Law Society (VUWFLS). The event was inspired by our experiences as young women in the legal profession, as well as in anticipation of the challenges entering New Zealand’s legal…

Collegiality and friendship in the legal community is important in a profession that is becoming increasingly digital. Perhaps the best people to ask about the value of human connection between old colleagues are ‘old colleagues’. John Upton QC, Sir David Carruthers and Geoff Thompson all graduated from the University of Victoria in…

LawFest organiser Andrew King continues a series of interviews with key legal professionals with their innovation and technology stories.

Update

Barriers to participation in the employment institutions

Community groups, academics, policy makers, senior legal practitioners, representatives from unions, Business New Zealand, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, Employment Mediation Services, the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court gathered in Wellington in May to discuss barriers to participation in the employment institutions and how those barriers might be…

In the second in a series of three articles, Mark von Dadelszen looks at the proposed reform of the law relating to incorporated societies. This involves a complete overhaul of the existing century-old legislation. Read part one and part three. Society constitutionsThe new Incorporated Societies Act is proposed to require that…

Sandman v McKay [2019] NZSC 41 concerns a son’s claim against the law firm that drafted his mother’s will. The majority decision of the Supreme Court indicates that where lawyers are instructed to draft a will, they should do so even if they suspect a client may lack testamentary capacity…

Access to justice

Public Defence Service: An important influence on criminal law practice

From a pilot scheme in Manukau in 2004, the Public Defence Service (PDS) has grown to an organisation with 10 offices and around 250 staff, 181 of whom are lawyers. It is having an important impact on the practice of criminal law. The Manukau pilot took off after Dame Margaret Bazley’s…

New technology aids access to justice

Better access to justice for all New Zealanders – especially people from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups – has been a common theme behind many of the Law Foundation’s grants throughout its existence. Over the years, Foundation funding has improved access to justice in some way for groups as diverse as children,…

Human rights awardsThe International Rescue Committee and its President and CEO, David Miliband, have been announced as the 2019 recipient of the 11th Stockholm Human Rights Award. The award is jointly made by the Swedish Bar Association, the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Legal Assistance Consortium to an…

Pro Bono legal services support Canterbury Muslim community

Six months after the Christchurch mosque attacks, pro bono legal services continue to make a difference to families of the victims. Lawyers in Canterbury have been involved in hundreds of pro bono cases involving families of the 51 people who died in the 15 March terrorist attacks. The free legal work would…

Alternative dispute resolution

In a previous article (LawTalk 932, September 2019), I suggested ways in which modest to middle level disputes could be dealt with by expedited arbitration. In this article I consider major relationship property disputes. Major relationship property disputes are assumed to be those in which trusts or companies are involved…

Reactive devaluation

Conflict is inevitable and is often necessary to bring about change. Our reaction to conflict is typically a problem in itself as we lack robust and fair conflict resolution strategies, all too often falling back on our biases and prejudices even when we think we are being rational. Reactive devaluation is…

Technology

MyTrove is a free web service now available to solve some of the challenges to lawyers and individuals around estate management. The platform myTrove Notify allows users to notify multiple organisations when someone has died, after registering online and completing the details. Currently, notifications can be sent to IRD, Westpac…

Windows 7: Leaving so soon?

Microsoft will withdraw support for Windows 7, its fastest-ever selling version of Windows, on 14 January 2020. No more security patches or other updates from this date, meaning it’s time to upgrade. The history of Microsoft Windows sure has been a strange old rollercoaster ride. It officially started with version 1.0…

Letters to the editor

I wrote some months ago (LawTalk 907, June 2017) about the forms of enduring powers of attorney, related certificates, and plethora of other material in the Protection of Personal and Property Rights (Enduring Powers of Attorney Forms and Prescribed Information) Regulations 2008. I considered, and still do, that the prescribed enduring…

Is it just me? I am affronted when reading of the obscene profits made by the banks and the more modest, but no less obscene, profits made by the retirement village industry that each of these institutions insist on the legal profession undertaking the role of their de facto unpaid printing…

Lawyers Complaints Service

In the recent Court of Appeal decision of Peter James Morahan v Wellington Standards Committee 2 [2019] NZCA 221, the Court of Appeal considered the status of conduct that occurred before the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 came into force. The Court of Appeal confirmed the role such conduct can…

Former lawyer Jennifer McDonnell has been censured and fined $8,000 by a lawyers standards committee. The committee found Ms McDonnell had provided negligent and/or incompetent advice to the beneficiaries of an estate which contributed to delay. This constituted unsatisfactory conduct. In late 2014, Ms McDonnell took instructions to prepare wills for Mr…

A lawyer who unduly delayed releasing files to a client’s new lawyer has been fined $1,000 by a lawyers standards committee. The lawyer, Cleveland, had acted for Mr Hampshire’s family trust and in the preparation of a new will for Mr Hampshire.

Some lawyers may not be giving “adequate consideration to their obligations of confidentiality in the retention and storage of documents for use as precedents,” a lawyers standards committee has said.

The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has made an order that no legal practitioner or incorporated firm employ Sarah Buschman in connection with the practitioner's or incorporated firm's practice. The order is made pursuant to section 242(1)(h)(ii) of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006, for so long as the…

The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has suspended Auckland lawyer Nola Kay Dangen from practice for two months from 23 September 2019. This follows admission by Ms Dangen of a charge of negligence in relation to her conduct as a property manager and welfare guardian for an elderly woman.…

Legal information

Back when I first started, the Law Society would periodically send out to practitioners the Rules of Professional Conduct for Barristers & Solicitors (the Red Book). The purpose of this publication was to clearly set out the ethical and professional duties and responsibilities of lawyers in New Zealand. The Red Book was…

Reviewed by Geoff Adlam Mental Capacity Law in New ZealandBy Iris Reuvecamp and John Dawson, general editors The book contains contributions from 15 authors who include legal practitioners, academics, bioethicists and psychiatrists. Its focus is on the law governing the position of people who lack capacity to make decisions about their personal…

Legal history

The lawyers of the time when I started in the law would have been rather disconcerted by current trends in the nomenclature of legal firms today. Not as much as they would have been by the insistence of marketing, PR and other consultants in referring to lawyers as “the legal…

The wreckage of a burnt out bus, the aftermath of an attack on Freedom Riders.A lawyer is either a social engineer or a parasite; that’s what Thurgood Marshall, the first black person to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, was told as a student. He got the message…