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However repulsive the courtroom defence of Milly Dowler's murderer was, justice cannot mean limiting suspects' rights Few more repulsive characters have stood in the dock at the Old Bailey than Levi Bellfield, convicted last week of the murder of the teenager Milly Dowler. But should the...

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Only 30 rules have been finalised from 380 drawn up under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act It's almost a year since Barack Obama signed the "strongest consumer financial protections in history." Thanks to the Dodd-Frank bill, drawn up in the aftermath of...

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You can see why Pakeha may worry, I say to Maui Solomon, that Maori want rights to everything. Well, the thing is, the Moriori lawyer explains, Pakeha and Maori have different world views and attach different meanings to things, such as the concept of ownership. For Pakeha, and the legal...

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A former Rwandan minister for women's empowerment has become the first woman to be jailed for genocide and incitement to rape by an international tribunal. Judges at the UN court for Rwanda sentenced Pauline Nyiramasuhuko to life in prison for genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and rape....

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Legal aid providers can now apply to the New Zealand Law Society for their legal aid provider certificates of standing. The certificates must be included with applications under the new legal aid provider approval process. For a certificate issued by the New Zealand Law Society please fill...

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The New Zealand Law Society suggests an "opt-in" reporting scheme as an alternative to the proposed changes to the Credit Reporting Privacy Code. The proposal by the Privacy Commissioner is to extend of the scope of credit reporting to include non-default information, to allow more...

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today announced that it was closing its investigation into Property Ventures Limited (PVL) and Cashel Ventures Limited (CVL) following allegations of financial misrepresentation, finding no basis for further investigation. PVL was placed in receivership in...

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Guilty verdicts were today returned against Robert Anthony Briggs (50), the former Principal Officer and General Manager of the Actives Charitable Trust (Actives), and a former associate, who has interim name suppression, at the Auckland District Court today. The associate was found guilty of...

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Aucklanders who do not pay their water bills will have to wait up to 10 minutes to flush the toilet. The Auckland Council voted 13-6 yesterday in support of restricting water supplies to a trickle for those people who ignore a series of reminders about unpaid bills. Read more

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A natural disaster on the scale of the Canterbury earthquake could strike any city, so what can we expect of the Government if the same happened to us? Like many Kiwis I have family in the city, and know how traumatic and disruptive it has been. Disasters change the nature of our relationship...

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The Employers Association boss has defended his claim women get paid less than men because they have monthly "sick problems", have babies and need to take extra leave as the "facts of life". The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has called for Employers and Manufacturers...

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Christchurch residents with the most severly damaged homes will learn their fate today, but the future remains unknown for many other homeowners. The Government has confirmed that 5000 Christchurch houses are so severely damaged they are unlikely to be rebuilt for a "considerable"...

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Prime Minister John Key today announced the next step in the government's ongoing work to give people of greater Christchurch a clearer picture of what their future holds following a series of major earthquakes and aftershocks in the region. Mr Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister...

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Workplace bullies hurt not only their victims but the colleagues who witness it, a New Zealand study has found. The study of more than 1700 workers found a clear link between people being exposed to bullying and poor perceptions of the workplace. "The greater exposure a person had to...

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Convicted murderer Dean Waka Nathan has won a Court of Appeal bid to reduce the sentence he got for dealing methamphetamine from inside Christchurch Men's Prison. The Court of Appeal today quashed last year's sentence of 20 years imprisonment and set a new jail term of 17 years. The minimum...

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The Auckland Council is hiding a report about the risks in spending $180,000 with a security company hired to help patrol the Rugby World Cup. A source said the report considered the financial risk of doing business with Darien Rush Security, which is being pursued by a liquidator over a...

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Australian investors have been given the power to force the re-election of an entire board if they think executives are being paid too much, and the New Zealand Shareholders' Association says it could push for the introduction of a similar law here. From July 1, a "two strikes rule"...

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A proposal banning imports of airguns that look like the military weapons will have little impact on the the number available or on criminals using them to intimidate people, parliament has been told. The Arms (Military Style Semi-automatic Firearms And Import Controls) Amendment Bill would...

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The NZ Transport Agency has published a new classification system aimed at encouraging safer and more efficient use of New Zealand's 11,000 kilometre state highway network. The system categorises state highways across the country based on each road's main purpose and the function it serves,...

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With not enough training contracts for all its students, the legal practice course needs to find ways of reducing its intake Is the legal profession luring young people into training to be a solicitor or barrister at huge cost when their prospects of making a career out of it are, at best,...

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The Roberts court decision to block the class action lawsuit for sex discrimination effectively defines Walmart as 'too big to sue' Let's get this right: the world's biggest boss, supported by companies as diverse as Altria, Bank of America, Microsoft and General Electric and backed up by the...

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Social justice in Britain is expensive – and yes, we need to save money. But the cuts in this bill will end up costing a fortune This argument is becoming a bit one-note. The government suggests a cut, and the injustice of it howls out of the document like a singing Christmas card. They...

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Ai tells the Guardian that he is in good health and back with his family after more than two months in detention China has released world-famous artist Ai Weiwei on bail after more than two-and-a-half months of detention and a sustained international campaign calling for his freedom....

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Revenue Minister Peter Dunne today announced that businesses will be able to claim tax deductions on failed software developments because to not do so would inhibit productivity and innovation. “Essentially the Government wants business to help drive the economy forward, and this move is...

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An arm of the US Government is suing Royal Bank of Scotland, majority owned by the British taxpayer, over more than half a billion dollars of its mortgage bonds that went sour during the credit crisis. In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Kansas, the National Credit Union Administration,...

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Such state force is seldom seen in New Zealand's commercial history. How can Allan Hubbard fight 50 fraud charges when the state controls his personal funds, refuses to fully pay his lawyers, controls documents he needs for his defence and still won't reveal who laid the complaint that...

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The Financial Markets Authority has told SuperLife, one of New Zealand's biggest specialist superannuation providers, to overhaul its KiwiSaver sales practices. FMA chief executive Sean Hughes said he was concerned about a number of matters regarding SuperLife's sales practices, potential...

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Wellington based Aquaheat Industries Limited has been fined $16,000 after an employee chopped off four fingers while cutting steel with a guillotine. The Lower Hutt District Court also ordered the company to pay reparations of $10,000. On 18 February last year, the employee put his hand...

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Auckland Council says it has not given up trying to hold someone to account for the November collapse of inner-city heritage icon the Palace Hotel. Last week it decided not to take legal action against companies or individuals in relation to the collapse of the 124-year-old building, despite...

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Be careful who you call a "geek". It might get you sued. The United States retailer Best Buy, which is renowned in roughly equal measure for selling cheap electronics and providing patchy customer service, is claiming legal ownership of the well-worn term of abuse. Lawyers for the...

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The Government is to target unscrupulous credit companies that prey on unwary consumers, the Minister of Commerce and Consumers Affairs, Simon Power, announced today. He told the Financial Literacy Summit in Wellington that he is organising a financial summit that will look at ways to tackle...

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Lawyers for Taito Phillip Field were in the Supreme Court this morning attempting to have the jailed former MPs fraud convictions overturned. In October 2009, Field was jailed for six years after being convicted by a jury in the High Court at Auckland of 11 charges of bribery and corruption...

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The Government has unscrupulous loan sharks in its sights, with a financial summit to look at tackling credit companies that prey on unwary consumers. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Simon Power today announced the summit would look at tackling gaps in the system that allowed companies...

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Incidents of "horrendous" workplace bullying have risen sharply as businesses deal with the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake, a union claims. Unite Union today today said it has been flooded with calls from its members in Christchurch since the earthquake on February 22....

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The Official Assignee is investigating whether bankrupt Auckland property developer David Henderson set out to mislead the office with claims he was holidaying in Australia last week. Henderson left the country without permission, on June 10, just a day after he was made bankrupt - an offence...

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A United Nations specialist on slavery today welcomed the adoption by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of a convention aimed at the protection of millions of domestic workers worldwide, a majority of whom are women and girls. Gulnara Shahinian, the United Nations Special Rapporteur...

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Successive lord chancellors have not been as friendly to the profession as had been expected With the justice bill expected to be published at the end of the week, lawyers are gearing up for a major lobbying effort on both legal aid and civil costs reform. But just how powerful is that lobby?...

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The southern city of Dunedin should ban new homes that face south so they can take more advantage of solar heating, says one councillor. Fliss Butcher said developers often put views over energy efficiency - making them inefficient and expensive to heat, the Otago Daily Times reported....

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upporters of South Canterbury Finance's Allan Hubbard are confident he will be cleared of fraud charges which could see the 83-year-old jailed for 10 years if found guilty. Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley yesterday announced the 50 charges against the Timaru accountant but...

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John Key has told an Australian newspaper the Pike River Mine "would be illegal" if it were constructed in Australia and acknowledged there are deficiencies in New Zealand's mining safety regulations. A Royal Commission inquiry is to investigate the Pike River accident, where 29 men...

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The owners of desexed dogs in the old Manukau City Council area are having difficulty registering their animals in the Super City. Veterinary clinics have been inundated with people asking for written proof their dogs have been neutered after the Auckland Council told them to pay a higher...

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced today that it has concluded its investigation into Mutual Finance Limited and related company, Viaduct Capital Limited. The SFO said the initial investigation has found insufficient evidence of fraud to warrant the use of its full investigative powers...

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The Financial Markets Authority has issued a warning to SuperLife Limited and SuperLife Trustees Limited (together 'SuperLife') to overhaul its KiwiSaver sales practices. FMA Chief Executive Sean Hughes said FMA was seriously concerned about a number of matters regarding SuperLife's sales...

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today announced that it has made a decision in relation to its investigation into the affairs of Aorangi Securities Ltd (ASL); Hubbard Management Funds (HMF); and ASL directors Allan and Margaret (Jean) Hubbard. SFO Chief Executive, Adam Feeley, said,...

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Housing Minister Phil Heatley describes the updated Unit Titles Act that comes into force today, as a ‘game changer’. "When the Act was originally drafted in 1972 the market was nowhere near as complex as it is now," says Mr Heatley. "The updated Unit Titles Act,...

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The Crown and Ngāti Rēhua-Ngāti Wai ki Aotea (Ngāti Rēhua) have signed an Agreement in Principle to settle all outstanding historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, announced Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Christopher Finlayson today. Ngāti Rēhua is a hapū of Ngāti Wai...

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From Perry Mason through to The Good Wife, TV has always loved lawyers. But who are the most memorable? TV loves lawyers. It always has, from Perry Mason in 1957 through to The Good Wife today. It doesn't matter if some legal dramas are actually little more than upmarket soaps, or that they...

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Council of Europe's head of human rights says privacy and free speech are global issues and the UN should look at them The United Nations should set up a commission to look at the conflicts between privacy and freedom of expression on the internet because the issue is global, the Council of...

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US supreme court rejects arguments that there was a common policy of discrimination against women at American retail giant The US supreme court has rejected the biggest sex discrimination case in history, ruling that the claim against retail giant Walmart on behalf of as many as 1.6 million...

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Former Supreme Court judge Bill Wilson says that if he had his time again, he wouldn't have made a disclosure about his relationship with QC Alan Galbraith who appeared before him. He also says that he did not know about 2003 guidelines for judges on disclosure of conflicts of interest at the...

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