8 October 2018
By Mike Mika, Partner. 
As part of the Government’s wider commitment to ensuring New Zealand courts became modern, accessible and responsive to children and vulnerable people, the family justice system was radically reformed in 2014. The intent of the reforms was aimed at the Family Court being used as a last resort for the most serious and complex cases, with other disputes involving the new Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) service (an independent mediation service). Disputes involving the risk of violence were intended to be fast-tracked and without notice to the other party utilising family lawyers. In this article, we focus on a couple of areas of interest regarding FDR.
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4 October 2018
By Rebecca McLeod, Partner. 
The Employment Relations Authority takes a strict approach to 90 day trials and it has previously held that a trial period clause was invalid after an employee started working two hours before signing their employment agreement. The following case is a clear example of this.
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18 September 2018
By James Cambridge, Partner. 
Trees are a common backyard feature. They are home to wildlife, improve the quality of air and add to the beauty of our landscapes. BUT they also cause problems and occasionally fall down.
If a neighbouring tree is causing problems and interfering with the use and enjoyment of your land, what are your rights and how far do they extend?
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22 August 2018
By David Stoevelaar, Solicitor. 
The first questions most people will ask when experiencing a dispute are - what are my options and how can this come to an end? Where parties are unwilling to resolve a dispute, a good and cost effective option is mediation.
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15 August 2018
By Alice Anderson, Senior Solicitor. 
Defining and understanding what relationship you have with a worker is important as each relationship brings different rights and responsibilities for the parties.
A Dunedin taxi company has been ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in wage arrears after the Employment Relations Authority (“the ERA”) found it had been wrongly treating four of its former drivers as independent contractors (rather than employees) in an attempt to save money.
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