Legal articles & publications

Recently Parliament enacted the Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Act 2022 in response a form of sexual exploitation, often referred to as “revenge pornography”.

The Governor-General by Order in Council recently passed the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Amendment Regulations 2022 (the 2022 Regs), which contain some important changes to the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Regulations 2020 (the Principal Regs) relating to intensive winter grazing.

On 25 August 2021, Radio New Zealand published that 5 people in Auckland had potentially received a dose of saline solution, instead of the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine in July.

When I began practising insurance law in New Zealand back in 2012, it was apparent that the legal framework was a bit haphazard. This wasn’t a new criticism, even ten years ago.

Parliament has introduced the Natural Hazards Insurance Bill, which will replace the Earthquake Commission Act 1993 and overhaul the Earthquake Commission (EQC).

The Government is proposing to create an Income Insurance Scheme (Scheme) for employees in New Zealand. The proposal states that employees who lose their job through no fault of their own (i.e. their role is disestablished on the ground of redundancy) may be paid 80% of their income for up to 7 months.

On 23 March 2022, the Government announced several key changes would be made to the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order (Protection Framework), COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 (Vaccinations Order) and COVID-19 Public Health Response (Specified Work) Order (Specified Work Order). Here is what you need to know:

2022 will see a number of legislative changes in employment law take effect. As an employer, you need to be ready and have clearly communicated what these changes mean for your employees …

With the Pfizer vaccine now available for anyone aged five and over, parents around the country are faced with the difficult decision about whether to vaccinate their tamariki. The decision is made more difficult when parents’ views differ and the child has a voice in the decision, too. A spotlight has been shone on this very conundrum in a case recently before the Family Court (Long v Steine [2022] NZFC 251)

The Employment Relations Authority recently enforced restraint of trade clauses in a political journalist’s employment agreement when she resigned - Tova O’Brien v Discovery NZ Limited (2022). In deciding whether to enforce the restraints, the Authority considered whether they were reasonable and questioned the scope of the terms.

With the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 6) (Vaccination Amendment Order) and the new COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order 2021 (Protection Framework Order) – which provides the legal basis for the Traffic Light system – employers are still finding themselves coming to terms with yet another set of rules.

This article is a very brief consideration of the complicated legal issue of professional negligence. A landmark decision in this area was released by the UK Supreme Court earlier this year: Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton. Although it is an English case, MBS v Grant Thornton is of great interest to New Zealand practitioners; the six-stage test for professional negligence is closely applicable to the New Zealand legal regime.