News

Court Registrars and court staff across Christchurch and Canterbury had given extraordinary service to ensure the continuity of justice services for Christchurch following the February 22nd earthquake, Courts Minister Georgina te Heuheu said today. Mrs te Heuheu made the comments as she...

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Regulations governing the commercial adventure tourism and outdoor education industries come into effect today. The Adventure Activities Regulations sit under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. They require operators who provide activities that are designed to deliberately...

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Picture this: Kodak - the company that invented the first digital camera in 1975, and developed the photo technology inside most cellphones and digital devices - is in the midst of the worst crisis in its 131-year history. Now, caught between ruin and revival, Eastman Kodak is reaching ever...

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The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s today sentenced the leader of the Serb Radical Party – already facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity – to 18 months in jail after finding him guilty of contempt of court for a second time....

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Senior lawyers warns that litigation is natural outcome of intense competition in fast-growing field – but that Google is taking advantage of others' efforts One of Microsoft's most senior lawyers has accused Google's Android software of "standing on the shoulders" of...

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About half the staff at a prominent justice reform group have resigned en masse in protest over a change in the organisation's direction - including a new chief executive on a six-figure salary. President Peter Williams, QC, vice-president Barry Hart, and about a dozen lawyers and accountants...

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A retired Rotorua lawyer and his client were shown pallets of cash in Amsterdam as proof of a $27 million inheritance but the pair were instead duped an an internet scam, a court has been told. John David Rangitauira, 59, is on trial in Rotorua District Court after pleading not guilty to four...

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A Hamilton doctor accused of misdiagnosing a woman's bowel cancer told a hearing he did "the work of 2.2 doctors" and often put in 100 hours a week. But despite his long hours Dr Suresh Vatsyayann said this did not compromise his patients' safety. Dr Vatsyayann, who was struck off...

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A medical mix-up which led to a surgeon operating to remove a gall-bladder that he had already removed has prompted changes in the way a district health board deals with medical records. The action comes after a Waikato surgeon cut out tissue that he thought was a woman's gall-bladder before...

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Palestine became a full member of UNESCO overnight in a historic vote that could cost the agency a fifth of its budget and that the US and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts. The decision is a grand symbolic victory for the Palestinians, but it alone won't make...

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A prominent physicist and global warming sceptic spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: temperatures really are rising rapidly. The study of the world's surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially...

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The effects of the 2009 global financial crisis are still being felt, judging by the number of complaints being laid about banks, banking ombudsman Deborah Battell says. Battell said complaints and inquiries made under the banking ombudsman scheme are running at historically high levels, but...

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A bid this morning by Nathans Finance's former auditor could put an end to a $66 million claim brought by the failed finance company's receiver. Nathans Finance collapsed in August 2007, owing 7000 investors around $174 million. Its former directors - Mervyn Doolan, John Hotchin, Kenneth...

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An almost year-long battle between the Auckland Council and the Cotton family over the colour of their 100-year-old dream home has come to an unhappy resolution. The stand-off began after Julie and Rodney Cotton bought the Epsom heritage villa in January and moved it to a section overlooking...

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Commonwealth leaders have agreed on a package of measures to strengthen their arm against rogue members and target pressing global issues, but failed to give the organisation real muscle on human rights. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting yesterday confirmed new powers for earlier...

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Having overdue fines and reparation may soon impact people’s ability to get credit as the government approves the implementation of the Credit Check of Fines initiative, Minister for Courts Georgina te Heuheu announced today. The initiative allows credit agencies, such as hire purchase...

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New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully and EU High Representative/Vice President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton yesterday held bilateral talks in Perth. Catherine Ashton agreed to seek a negotiating mandate for a Treaty level Framework Agreement to upgrade the bilateral...

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Local Government Minister Rodney Hide will make comments on Hamilton City Council's damning review of the V8 audit early next week following a full briefing on the entire report later this week. A spokeswoman for Mr Hide said the minister was waiting to be briefed by officials on the findings...

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Having overdue fines and reparation may soon impact people's ability to get credit as the government approves the implementation of the Credit Check of Fines initiative, Minister for Courts Georgina te Heuheu announced today. The initiative allows credit agencies, such as hire purchase...

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Councils have been urged to check, secure and fix dangerous manholes by the coroner who conducted the inquest into the death of a West Auckland toddler. The police have already changed the way search and rescue teams operate as a result of the investigation into the death of Aisling Symes, 2,...

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Heads of government slammed as disgraceful and the summit labelled a failure over indifference to recommendations Commonwealth leaders have been accused of behaving disgracefullly after they declined to publish an "Eminent Persons Group" (EPG) reportcalling for the 54-nation body to...

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The New Zealand Law Society says it agrees with the Law Commission that the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 is overdue for reform. The Law Society also supports most of the reforms proposed by the Commission to the law on incorporated societies and charitable trusts. The Law Society has...

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The public feels strongly about such things as healthcare and education. To give only civil and political rights a legal basis is a mistake In contrast with an increasing number of other countries, the UK does not afford domestic recognition to economic and social rights, despite having...

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Cost of insuring spacecraft in Earth's orbit likely to rise, London Institute of Space Policy and Law director tells seminar The second unscheduled re-entry of a spacecraft into Earth's atmosphere within a month highlights the growing danger from falling debris, according to legal...

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The Government will set up a company to manage the distressed assets in the failed finance companies that called on the Crown's retail deposit guarantee. Finance Minister Bill English said the receiverships of South Canterbury Finance, Allied Nationwide Finance, Vision Securities, Mascot...

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The Government has decided to set up a company to manage the recovery of the remaining assets of six finance companies placed in receivership while they had Crown guarantees, Finance Minister Bill English says. "Right throughout the Retail Deposit Guarantee scheme the Government has...

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An email scam which targets lawyers is being received by some members of the New Zealand legal profession, the New Zealand Law Society says. The scam purports to be from the manager of a large multinational oil company and asks the targeted lawyer to be their representative for North American...

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A British developer has threatened legal action against the organisers of Christchurch's "pop-up" inner city mall, alleging they've copied a similar project planned in London. Roger Wade, the director of the London Boxpark development in Shoreditch, emailed the organisers behind the...

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Bridgecorp directors were well aware the company was experiencing financial woes but continued to accept investors' money without informing them of these problems, prosecutors argue. The High Court trial of Rod Petricevic, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad for allegedly misleading...

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Google is dealing with more government demands to turn over information about its users as more people immerse themselves online. The mounting pressure on the internet search leader emerged in a statistical snapshot that Google released yesterday of its dealings with authorities around the...

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Max Schrems wasn't sure what he would get when he asked Facebook to send him a record of his personal data from three years of using the site. What the 24-year-old Austrian law student didn't expect, though, was 1,222 pages of data on a CD. It included chats he had deleted more than a year...

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The Supreme Court has dismissed disgraced former Labour MP Phillip Field's appeal against his conviction for bribery and corruption. Field was released from jail 10 days ago. He was two years into a six-year sentence after being found guilty in October 2009 of 11 charges of bribery and...

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Disagreement broke out at Auckland Transport's board table yesterday over a bid to distance the agency from blame for the public transport meltdown on Rugby World Cup opening day. Chairman Mark Ford told the council organisation's managers it was a pity they were put under so much pressure and...

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Four people have appeared in the Auckland District Court today on charges relating to failed finance companies Dominion Finance Group Limited (DFG) and North South Finance Limited (North South), following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Both companies were wholly owned...

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It is vital that international law underpin developments on the global stage, especially in an ever increasingly globalized and interconnected world, the head of the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) said today. “It is no exaggeration to say that all regions of the...

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The Government is to make a series of changes to bail laws to improve public safety. The changes build on work the Government achieved in its first 100 days in office to reverse Labour’s 2007 decision which made it easier for defendants to get bail. “This announcement fulfils...

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Two years after its founding, five supreme court justices explain how they reach judgments of national significance Behind the neo-gothic scenery at the supreme court, there is a tradition that after every hearing the most junior justice on the panel addresses the others first – allowing...

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What does Hugo Barra think of Steve Jobs's accusations of Android 'copying' Apple's phone operating system? Has Android copied elements from Apple's iOS? It's not a matter that Google's senior managers for the Android operating system want to get involved in. Hugo Barra, product management...

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The international criminal court has said it would not withdraw its arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi until it has forensic proof that he is dead. In practice, the ICC and Interpol changed the focus of their attention to the two other regime members facing arrest warrants for crimes against...

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Harry 'Breaker' Morant and Peter Handcock were executed for war crimes after shooting dead 12 Boer prisoners in 1902 Australia's government has said it will tell Britain that two Australian soldiers executed more than a century ago for war crimes in South Africa were probably denied fair...

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Criminals may have laundered around $1.6 trillion in 2009, one fifth of that coming from the illicit drug trade, according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The $1.6 trillion represents 2.7 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, says the...

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Bridgecorp renewed investment offers to the public despite directors being aware the finance company had been missing interest payments to securities holders, the Crown argued this morning. The High Court this morning also heard Bridgecorp staff were told to lie to investors calling up asking...

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PSIS has become The Cooperative Bank and it will pay "dividends", styled as rebates, to its 127,000 customer owners from surplus profits in the future. PSIS became a registered bank and adopted a new name from today. Tomorrow Steven Fyfe and Ross Wilson join its board, increasing...

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"The task before us," announces Financial Markets Authority (FMA) chief, Sean Hughes, in the regulator's inaugural 'Statement of Intent' "is to leverage the systems, cases and people that we inherited." Elsewhere Hughes promises the FMA will "optimise efficiencies...

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Four former Bridgecorp directors were ultimately responsible for ensuring the failed finance company's public documents were true - and they cannot defer that responsibility - a court heard yesterday Rod Petricevic, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad went on trial in the High Court at...

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Four former Bridgecorp directors, including Rod Petricevic, appeared in the High Court at Auckland this morning and plead not guilty to charges for misleading investors. Petricevic, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad face 10 Securities Act charges for allegedly making untrue statements...

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The Natural Health Products Bill, a First Reading of which has been unanimously passed before Parliament recently, paves the way for positive reform of the New Zealand natural health products industry. The Bill proposes establishment of a Natural Health Products Regulatory Authority who will...

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The High Court last week released a decision which may be a cause for concern for any directors who are insured under a D&O policy. The decision has wide-reaching ramifications for any directors who have policies where defence costs and claims for damages are covered by the same policy....

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The Commerce Commission today announced that it will appeal against the recent High Court decision that it should have determined further input methodologies before seeking to reset starting prices for certain electricity distribution businesses (EDBs). “We do not believe that an input...

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Jury trials in central Christchurch will operate from early next year, Minister for Courts Georgina te Heuheu announced today. A number of modular buildings, known as portacoms, are being used to construct the purpose-designed jury building. The facility will be located near the Christchurch...

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