Neil Sands A Judicial Conduct Panel has set aside a full two weeks in February for its hearing into whether District Court Judge Ema Aitken’s conduct at the Northern Club warrants her removal from the bench. The panel, led by retired Court of Appeal Judge Brendan Brown KC, released a minute setting out an agreed timetable for dealing with the allegations against Aitken, which it has previously said will result in a recommendation about the judge’s future being made by Easter next year. No...| Law News
Jenni McManus Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has refused a request from The Law Association (TLANZ) to make a minor amendment to the Lawyers & Conveyancers Act 2006 (LCA) which would have enabled TLANZ and its members to share in the distribution of assets from the Solicitors’ Fidelity Guarantee Fund (SFGF). The fund, set up under the Law Practitioners Act in 1982 to cover theft by lawyers, closed in August 2008 when the LCA came into effect and a new Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund was establish...| Law News
Neil Sands Local Government NZ (LGNZ) President Sam Broughton admits there’s a “popular vibe” against councils at the moment, particularly on the issue of soaring rates bills, but he’s urging voters to think long-term and look beyond sloganeering in this year’s local elections. “Are we just going to have a race that looks at who’s going to provide the lowest rates? It’s not as simple as that,” Broughton told LawNews. “We’re in 2025, and it’s decisions made in 1980 and ...| Law News
Neil Sands Tough new police powers to crack down on boy racers are “overbroad, disproportionate and inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act”, TLANZ’s Criminal Law Committee has warned. The committee said that without significant amendments, the Anti-Social Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill “may fail operationally, repeating the experience of earlier ‘crusher’ legislation”. The bill, which passed its first reading in Parliament in August, creates a default penalty ...| Law News
Michael Legg When you don’t have the money for a lawyer to represent you in a court case, even judges can understand the temptation to get free help from anywhere – including tapping into generative artificial intelligence (AI). As Judge My Anh Tran in the County Court of Victoria said this year: Generative AI can be beguiling, particularly when the task of representing yourself seems overwhelming. However, a litigant runs the risk that their case will be damaged, rather than helped, if...| Law News
Mahvash Ikram After years of complaints about Corrections transferring defendants on remand without notifying counsel, criminal lawyers have welcomed a new notification system that will inform them when their client is being moved from one prison to another. Criminal barrister and Vice-President of The Law Association, Julie-Anne Kincade KC, said lawyers often arrived at prison to meet their client only to find the person had been moved to another facility without notice. “Our clients would...| Law News
Natalie Coates & Tai Ahu Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa (the Māori Law Society) is concerned at recent reported comments by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith that tikanga Māori introduces unpredictability into the law that could deter investment. It has been reported that the minister at a Law Association event warned against a “bespoke” New Zealand legal system and indicated a willingness to overwrite judicial decisions where tikanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations are engaged. T...| Law News
Neil Sands Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith admits he’s pessimistic about the chances of officials finding a way to stop overseas breaches of a suppression order relating to the Tom Phillips case, given the global nature of modern online communications. The High Court imposed an interim injunction on September 8 preventing media from publishing some aspects of the case involving Phillips, who was shot dead in a confrontation with police in Waitomo after four years on the run with his three c...| Law News
Critique of the NZLS's reform proposals highlights risks to justice, confidentiality, and oversight. Samira Taghavi argues key changes may harm both lawyers and the public interest.| Law News
Neil Sands Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has warned the judiciary that the government will legislate “over the top” of decisions involving concepts such as tikanga and treaty obligations if action is needed to retain legal clarity in New Zealand. At a breakfast function in Wellington this morning hosted by The Law Association of New Zealand (TLANZ), Goldsmith expressed concern that New Zealand was developing a “bespoke” legal system incorporating concepts of Māori tikanga which can...| Law News
Neil Sands An interim injunction preventing media from publishing some aspects of the Tom Phillips case has been extended for another month at an hearing of the High Court in Wellington. Justice Helen Cull first imposed the gag order on September 8, the same day Phillips was shot dead in a confrontation with police in Waitomo, ending four years on the run after he disappeared into dense Waikato bush with his three children. Cull granted the injunction in response to an urgent application from...| Law News
Tama Potaka says the Conservation Act 19 law is outdated, ambiguous and unfit for purpose. He is proposing a new, streamlined framework for approving economic activity on conservation land and faster processing of applications.| Law News
Neil Sands New Zealand’s covid-19 response became “wobbly” in the latter stages of the pandemic and future responses should rely less on lockdown and vaccine mandates, the head of a royal commission into the coronavirus strategy says. Epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely presented the findings of phase one of the Royal Commission into Covid-19 Lessons Learned to the government today, outlining the findings of almost two years’ work. Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden immediately rele...| Law News
Neil Sands The covid-19 royal commission says it has no knowledge of a suppression order that would prevent Labour leader Chris Hipkins from appearing at a public hearing to detail his decision-making during the pandemic. Plans for a public hearing were scrapped last month after Hipkins, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, her deputy Grant Robertson and ex-health minister Ayesha Verrall all declined to appear and answer questions in public. Hipkins, who was Minister for Covid-19 Response, ...| Law News
Neil Sands New Zealand’s online protection laws are so fragmented, outdated and ineffective that authorities have been powerless to block access to a pro-suicide web forum linked by a coroner to the deaths of five New Zealanders, Parliament has been told. In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the harm young New Zealanders are encountering online, The Law Association of New Zealand’s (TLANZ) Technology & Law Committee has called for urgent action to deal with emerging digital thr...| Law News
The National Party unveiled a bill on Tuesday to ban under-16s from social media social but immediately ran into criticism from coalition partner the ACT Party, which described it as “not workable”. National announced the move as a private members bill under the name of Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd, who appeared alongside Prime Minister Christopher […]| Law News
Neil Sands Tech experts have warned that banning children from social media is a quick fix destined to fail, and such restrictions may actually exacerbate the dangers young people face online by driving their activities underground. An inquiry by Parliament’s Education & Workforce Select Committee into the online harm that children encounter online heard evidence this week from a range of legal professionals who focus on technology. Many questioned the effectiveness of blanket restrictions,...| Law News
Jenni McManus For the first time, a major political party says it will make compulsory KiwiSaver part of its pitch to voters at next year’s election. NZ First leader Winston Peters told the party faithful at their annual convention in Palmerston North on Sunday that the compulsory contribution level would rise for both employers and employees – first to 8% and then to 10% of gross salary – and both KiwiSaver members and employers would receive tax cuts to cover the increase. Peter did n...| Law News
Mahvash Ikram Five unions are expected to file a claim in the High Court today, accusing the government of Bill of Rights Act violations arising from changes to pay equity law that has aborted 33 live claims, affecting 180,000 workers. Represented by Rodney Harrison KC and Peter Cranney, the five plaintiffs are the Nurses Union, PSA, PPTA, NZEI and the Tertiary Education Union. Collectively, the group had lodged 24 of the 33 now-terminated pay equity claims. Harrison and Cranney also acted fo...| Law News
Neil Sands Outgoing Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says New Zealand’s reputation as a world leader in transparency is slipping as officials increasingly seek legislative “carve-outs” from the Official Information Act (OIA) that hamper public scrutiny of government actions. In an interview with LawNews, Boshier also offered scathing assessments of Health New Zealand’s “disgraceful” attitude to OIA compliance and the Corrections Department’s “glacial” response to urgently nee...| Law News