A message from the Secretary for Justice, Andrew Kibblewhite

Kia ora tatou, I hope you and the ones who matter most to you are safe and well in these uncertain times. As I write this, the Prime Minister has just announced that Alert Level 4 will continue until midnight on Monday 27 April, with Alert Level 3 running for at least…

Balancing corrective justice and indeterminate regulator liability

The Court of Appeal’s decision in StrathbossBy Tim Smith In Attorney-General v Strathboss Kiwifruit Ltd [2020] NZCA 98 the Court of Appeal allowed the Crown’s appeal from the High Court decision finding that the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) owed a duty of care to kiwifruit orchardists to avoid the…

CALD parties before the Employment Relations Authority

By Mai Chen In LawTalk 938, April 2020, I wrote about “Judicial leadership on equal access to justice for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parties in Courts”. That article summarised the unique insights that judges of the senior courts provided at a seminar co-hosted by New Zealand Asian Lawyers (under the umbrella…

Can we apply the Stockdale Paradox to today’s crisis?

By Paul Sills ParadoxNiels Bohr the Danish physicist and quantum theorist (Nobel Prize in physics in 1922) said “How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” (Ruth Moore, Niels Bohr: The Man, His Science and the World They Changed, 1966, page 196). …

Challenging a Tenancy Tribunal decision

By Joshua Pietras The Tenancy Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) is an unfamiliar forum for most civil litigators. This is most likely due to the prohibition on legal counsel in all Tribunal proceedings, except where the amount in dispute exceeds $6,000.00. However, the Tribunal is also the most popular judicial forum in…

Clarifying the law of price fixing: Lodge Real Estate Ltd v Commerce Commission [2020] NZSC 25

By John Land On 2 April 2020 the Supreme Court issued its first decision on the application of the prohibition on price fixing in the Commerce Act 1986. In Lodge Real Estate Ltd v Commerce Commission [2020] NZSC 25 the Court confirmed that a number of Hamilton’s biggest real estate agencies…

Conviction, sentencing and imprisonment of adults in 2019

By Geoff Adlam Three-quarters of the prosecutions of adults in District and High Courts where there was an outcome resulted in convictions in 2019. One-fifth were “not proved” – which includes where a person was acquitted or discharged, or where the charge was dismissed or withdrawn. This information comes from Statistics New…

COVID-19: What Are the Lasting Impacts?

By Damian Funnell Well, that happened. Or is still happening. As I type this we’re halfway through the stage 4 lockdown and it’s looking promising that restrictions are going to lift, at least somewhat, after the initial five week period. It all happened so fast. Literally one day we were marvelling about…

Crunch time for AML/CFT regimes

By Marty Robinson First, let me start with the bad news: You’ll flunk your external AML/CFT audit if you based your documents on the Law Society templates without injecting considerable critical analysis of your firm’s own specific situation, customising the templates accordingly and adding in the statutory requirements missing from the…

Talking about Mental Health: Financial wellbeing

By Jacki Houtwipper Latest global thought leadership tells us that our financial wellbeing should be a primary focus. Research globally and in New Zealand shows us that there is a direct link between financial stress, and our physical and mental wellbeing. When you’re a lawyer, you often have high levels of stress.…

From the Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture: The art of adaptation

As this issue of LawTalk goes live, the COVID-19 Alert Level has been reduced to three. While this is positive news, we are far from a return to normal with many restrictions still in place. This is another test of the flexibility and adaptability the profession has shown since Level 4…

From the Bat Cave to the Environmental Bar: Jenna Silcock, Senior Associate, Buddle Findlay

By Angharad O’Flynn Law was something that Jenna Silcock accidentally fell into. A self-acknowledged lover of good arguments, Jenna avoided maths and sciences during her time at Christchurch’s Marian College, sticking more to English and history-related subjects. “Law fits well with my personality and love of learning – and affinity for classic clothes…

Censure and fine for conflict of interest

All names used are fictitious. A lawyer who acted for the vendor and purchaser of a company, and for the company, has been censured and fined $3,000 for acting where there was a conflict of interest. Mr Q agreed to sell Mr R his 42% shareholding and to exit the company they…

Memphis: City of two Kings

By John Bishop Memphis, the biggest city in Tennessee, epitomises the old and new South of the United States. Once a major slave trading centre, in the 1960s it was the focus of civil rights action. Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated there, and the National Civil Rights Museum in the…

New Zealand Law Society offers assistance to Epidemic Response Committee

Responding to the COVID-19 crisis requires a commitment to the fundamental values that underpin New Zealand’s legal system, New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa President Tiana Epati has said. On 4 April Ms Epati wrote to the Chair of the Epidemic Response Select Committee, Simon Bridges, offering…

Nurturing your clients: Give them your best service

By Adrienne Olsen As we emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown, business for many law firms will have changed markedly. Clients’ needs are likely to have changed and/or the way they run their businesses. Some of you will have new clients who have created new business as a result of the lockdown.…

South Auckland’s Mormon defence lawyer: Panama Le’au’anae

By Teuila Fuatai Panama Le’au’anae sums up more than 30 years of work as a criminal and family lawyer: “Some of the cases that I’ve dealt with are really the worst types of human behaviour”. Measured and resolute, the comment is not intended to be unkind or disparaging. Rather, it is one…

Pondering career paths after the experience of lockdown

By Andrew de Boyett and Jill Pitches Many lawyers may be reflecting on their experience of the lockdown and what it has been like to work remotely, pondering the future, and thinking about their work situation and where they are going with their careers. Part of that thinking may be around…

Salary stumble: Low pay among young legal professionals and its impacts

By Craig Stephen Salary levels for junior lawyers continues to be hot topic for the profession and legal community with claims some lawyers are being paid below the minimum wage. There are also suggestions that low remuneration for lawyers in the first few years of their careers is forcing some to leave…

The Innovators: Simon Tupman

LawFest organiser Andrew King continues a series of interviews with key legal professionals with their innovation and technology stories. Tell us about yourselfI started out as a litigation lawyer in London specialising in criminal defence. After five years, I became dissatisfied with my working life and so, after gaining…

Some observations from the legal world during lockdown

“My expectation is that once we are through the challenges that COVID-19 has presented, we will return to justice that is administered predominantly in-person and from courthouses. The courthouses in the cities and towns of New Zealand are and will remain important places of justice for our communities.”- Chief Justice…

The courts and the lockdown

Looking for transformational opportunitiesNever before have New Zealand’s courts been disrupted to the extent that has occurred as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. Strong relationships and constant communication have been critical to the courts’ response and since 13 March the Chief Justice has been writing to the profession…

The New ADLS-REINZ Agreement

Part 3By Thomas Gibbons This article continues a series on the new ADLS-REINZ agreement for sale and purchase of real estate (10th edition) (LawTalk 937, March 2020, pages 47-48 and LawTalk 938, April 2020, pages 54-55). Property lawyers and legal executives are no doubt becoming more familiar with the new form…

The Defence Lawyers Association of New Zealand

By Elizabeth Hall and Christopher Stevenson The new organisation for those doing ‘uniquely challenging work’Cicero, the masterful Roman orator and defence lawyer once uttered during an address: “But I must stop now. I can no longer speak for tears”. Almost two millennia later the acclaimed defence lawyer Clarence Darrow, battling excessive…

Three Twentieth Century Judges

By Sir Ian Barker QC Sir Ian Barker QC When first writing this series I intended that I should discuss people prominent in the law in those distant days when I was a young(ish) lawyer. I later extended the menu to include some deceased judges who might not be well-known…

Use of mediation under the new Trusts Act 2019

By Carole Smith Of course, parties have always been able to use mediation to settle their disputes, as long as they are all willing to give it a try. However, cases involving trusts are a little out of the ordinary when it comes to compromise. One of the reasons for this…

What’s keeping you up at night?

By Raewyn Ng People who have trouble with getting to sleep or getting enough sleep, are tempted to venture into the world of sleep solutions and sleep tracking. It’s a $430 billion global market and like any other aspect of the wellness market, there’s dozens of devices, products and supplements out…