News

One of the most established tourism companies in Queenstown says it will not be forced to cut staff or close after being ordered to pay $320,500 in costs by the Environment Court. The costs arose as a result of Kawarau Jet and associated company Clearwater Pursuits Ltd having waged a...

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Nicaragua has filed suit against Costa Rica at the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ), citing violations to national sovereignty and major environmental damages to its territory due to the construction of a new road along the banks of the San Juan River. Nicaragua contends...

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The Honourable Justice Robert Chambers has been appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson announced today. Justice Chambers graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 1975, and in 1978 gained a doctorate from the...

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The Honourable Justice Douglas White has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson announced today. Justice White, a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington, joined Young Bennett & Co after a stint working for the Law Commission in London....

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From New Year, dealers and auctioneers must pay artists' heirs up to 4% of the sale price of works sold for more than €1,000 It was the plight of the family of French painter Jean-François Millet, forced to live in poverty as his famed 1858 Angélus resold for 800,000 gold francs, that...

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The High Court at Auckland has imposed a penalty of $3million against a major manufacturer of refrigerator compressors following a cartel investigation under the Commerce Act. The penalty was jointly recommended to the Court by the Commerce Commission and refrigerator compressor manufacturer...

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An Auckland man faces 34 Crimes Act charges of forgery and 34 Immigration Act charges of providing false and misleading information to an immigration officer after an investigation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Richard James Martin, 46, of Greenhithe, entered no plea to the charges when he...

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A new resource for the media reporting of suicide has been adopted by New Zealand print and broadcast media agencies. The resource is designed for quick access by busy journalists. It describes issues relating to suicide reporting, suggests areas that journalists should think carefully about,...

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New guidelines for journalists reporting on suicides have been developed with the media and not imposed on them, and that should be key to their success, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne says. “Media buy-in for such guidelines is crucial. This is the first time that media...

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Climate Change Minister Nick Smith today announced the Government is banning some international emissions units from New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). "We are banning international units generated from industrial gas destruction projects involving HFC-23 and N2O because...

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A prominent Auckland barrister facing a disciplinary hearing is making a last-ditch appeal to the highest court in the country to keep his identity secret. The lawyer is charged with three misconduct charges brought against him by the standards committee of the New Zealand Law Society. He...

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Two key organizers of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 were today sentenced to life in prison by the United Nations tribunal dealing with war crimes in the country which resulted in the deaths of some 800,000 people in just 100 days. Édouard Karemera and Matthieu Ngirumpatse, both senior members...

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Earthquake recovery continues to have widespread impact on court and justice services across New Zealand, Minister for Courts Chester Borrows said today. A firsthand look inside Christchurch’s main courthouse yesterday provided a valuable insight into the demands of frontline recovery...

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Late on the 19th December, the IRD released its long-awaited draft Interpretation Statement on 'Tax Avoidance and the Interpretation of Sections BG 1 and GA 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007'. At nearly 120 pages, it will provide a few hours of (not exactly lightweight) summer reading for both tax...

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South Korea's Samsung Electronics has filed new legal claims against US rival Apple in Germany, claiming that the iPhone maker infringed four of its patents. Samsung said the claims, filed on December 16 with the Mannheim regional court, relate to alleged infringement of patents including...

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A second electricity company this year has admitted breaching the Fair Trading Act and will refund customers who weren’t given a prompt payment discount with their final bills. As a result of a settlement between Pulse Utilities (New Zealand) Limited, trading as Just Energy and Pulse...

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A settlement between the Commerce Commission and GE Money today will result in GE Money paying a $60,000 donation to the New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services after admitting it breached the Fair Trading Act. GE admitted breaching the Fair Trading Act in October 2011 with a...

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Online communities in the US are all abuzz over a bill about to be passed by the US senate that some believe could destroy many of the sites and services that make the internet such an amazing place to share ideas, be entertained or to simply hang out. The Protect IP and SOPA (the Stop Online...

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A survey on the levels of satisfaction New Zealand lawyers have with their employment showed that 35.2% of respondents were considering leaving their current organisation within the next 12 months. The New Zealand Law Society/Momentum Legal Salary Survey 2011 collected responses from over 1100...

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Former lawyer John David Rangitauira (59) was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment in the Auckland District Court today, after being found guilty of obtaining funds by deception. Mr Rangitauira was convicted of four charges under the Crimes Act in November, following an...

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New all-of-Government contracts for air travel and external legal services will save the Government $178 million over the next six to seven years, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce announced today. The new contracts include all public sector agencies, councils and up to 2500 schools....

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The Law Commission is seeking New Zealanders’ views on the role of the news media in society and the standards to which they should be held to account. In its latest Issues Paper, The News Media Meets ‘New Media’: rights, responsibilities and regulation in the digital age,...

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Improving health and safety in the agriculture industry – a sector with one of the highest death and injury tolls - is the focus of a new Action Plan released for consultation today. The draft Agriculture Sector Action Plan is part of the Government’s National Action Agenda to...

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A Wellington demolition company has today been fined $20,000 after a contractor was exposed to asbestos fibres and live electricity while working on an inner city site. The Wellington District Court heard that Concrete Drilling and Cutting (1992) Limited was contracted to demolish two...

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A recent online survey conducted by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) forum has revealed that - contrary to popular assumptions - people do care about their privacy on social networking sites. In May 2011, the APPA forum encouraged its members to run an online survey to find out how...

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Eight years after assuming office as prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo spotlighted today the transformative changes taking place in international law, with countries increasing their support for ending impunity of international crimes, adding that this trend...

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The General Assembly and the Security Council today elected a Ugandan jurist to fill the final vacancy on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Julia Sebutinde obtained an absolute majority in both the Assembly and the Council, a...

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FMA announced today that debenture investors in Kiwi Finance Ltd will receive full reimbursement and are to be repaid approximately $1.2 million. The payment covers all remaining principal owed to secured debenture investors, plus interest outstanding up until Kiwi Finance went into...

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Banning embryonic stem cell patents not only imperils Europe's competitiveness but also the protection of human rights The full implications of the recent ban on stem cell patents by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union could take a long time to assess. From a legal...

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The real villains of YouTube are the multinational companies cashing in on public domain footage they claim is their own When you hear about "piracy" in connection to YouTube, perhaps you think of the billion-dollar lawsuit brought by Viacom against the Google division, claiming that...

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Parts of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control are still developing during a person's teens The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could be "unreasonably low" given the emerging understanding of how slowly the brains of...

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Climate Change Ministers Nick Smith and Tim Groser have warmly welcomed the outcome of the UN Climate Change negotiations which concluded successfully in Durban today. They paid tribute to the leadership provided by the host, South Africa, which paved the way for a truly comprehensive...

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The Auckland Council looks set to become the first New Zealand local authority to raise funds overseas. International trading bank HSBC said in a statement that it had arranged a US$2.5 billion euro medium term note (EMTN) programme for the council, which will enable it to access offshore...

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Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson today represented New Zealand at the Forum on Food Regulation in Melbourne to consider the Forum’s response to the Independent Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy. “I welcome the Forum’s response, which follows considerable work over...

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Lawyers employed as in-house counsel in the private sector have the highest average remuneration in the first 10 years of practice. This is one of the findings of the New Zealand Law Society/Momentum Legal Salary Survey 2011. The survey was carried out in September and October and over 1,100...

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Lord chief justice raises concerns at the ease with which a juror can discover information about a trial The integrity of the jury system is under challenge from temptations to trawl the internet for information about defendants, the lord chief justice will warn. In the wake of a series of...

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Supreme court in US state of Arkansas overturns murder conviction because a juror used Twitter during court proceedings The supreme court in the US state of Arkansas has thrown out a death row inmate's murder conviction because a juror tweeted during court proceedings. Erickson...

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One of the original protesters at the Occupy Auckland camp believes the site has been hijacked by people pushing their own agendas and not those that sparked the movement. The Auckland Council yesterday produced an email from Andrew Hendrie as evidence in the Auckland District Court as it...

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Life is rosy for the commercial bar with average revenue per barrister at £500,000 and pupillage pay at a record £65,000 As Britain lurches towards a double-dip recession, not everyone is struggling. Commercial barristers aren't the sort to broadcast their success – indeed, their...

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The Financial Markets Authority has completed its criminal investigation of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) and will support the Serious Fraud Office's case against five individuals involved with SCF's affairs. FMA Chief executive Sean Hughes said FMA will supply particulars of false statements...

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has laid charges over transactions worth $1.7 billion following its investigation into South Canterbury Finance, SFO chief executive Adam Feeley said in a statement today. Feeley said that, following a 14-month investigation into a variety of transactions...

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Lombard Finance & Investments and Lehman Brothers were working together to buy the loan books of distressed New Zealand finance companies before they both collapsed in 2008. The High Court in Wellington heard today that Lombard and former US investment bank Lehmans had entered into a...

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Greece breached a United Nations-facilitated accord with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia when it blocked its neighbour’s attempt to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled today. In a 15-to-one decision,...

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Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, and New Zealand Minister for International Climate Change Negotiations, Tim Groser, have welcomed progress on plans to link Australia’s and New Zealand’s emissions trading schemes. The Ministers agreed that...

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Hamilton City Council is at the centre of at least four claims over a leaking townhouse complex in which one owner faced an $81,000 repair bill. The council has settled a joint claim made through the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service for two of the units at 4a Mill Lane in Hamilton, and...

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Heli-hunting appears to be headed for its last season, with United Future leader Peter Dunne eager to outlaw the practice by 2013. Mr Dunne won a concession to stop guided helicopter hunting on conservation land in a deal signed with National yesterday, and said he would be starting work on...

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The discovery of old grave stones used as fill along the Onerahi foreshore has shocked Whangarei Maori who say the desecration dishonours the dead and endangers the living. Ngati Kahu representative William Pohe said he noticed the headstones while he was working with Whangarei District...

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Even though the public is aware that full-life tariffs are highly exceptional, the rhetoric of 'life for a death' remains seductive Another interesting report on criminal justice, and another sane plan that will not come to pass. The debate that keeps our prisons packed makes the rational...

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Rick Perry says Obama is waging 'war on traditional American values' after president urges aid agencies to fight discrimination President Barack Obama has told US officials to consider how countries treat its gay and lesbian populations when making decisions about allocating foreign aid. In...

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CPS lawyer criticised for failure to establish extent of undercover officer Mark Kennedy's involvement in protest A prosecutor is facing disciplinary action after an inquiry found he failed to establish the activities of an undercover officer during a collapsed case against environmental...

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