Welcome to Lawlink's collection of articles.
As part of our service, we produce a range of legal articles designed to alert our members' clients to legal developments that may affect their businesses.
You can use the search box on the right to carry out a text search of all the articles on our website.
Alternative debt collection procedures
Spring 2012
Credit and debt control is increasingly important for businesses in these hard economic times. Unfortunately, there are just some people who either refuse to pay or are unable to pay for goods or services they use. However, businesses need not necessarily 'write off' bad debts or put them down to 'experience'. This article discusses three relatively under-utilized debt collection techniques.
The impact on employers of the change from 'would' to 'could'
Spring 2012
The Employment Relations Act 2000 provides the test for whether an employer's actions in dealing with an employee are justified or not (section 103A).
An Alert to Carriers - Proposed law changes to the Carriage of Goods Act 1979
Spring 2012
On 20 April 2011 the Consumer Law Reform Bill ('the Bill') was introduced. The Bill looks to amend several Acts, including the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Carriage of Goods Act 1979. If the proposed law changes come into force it will significantly affect businesses who are carriers of goods.
Guarantees
Spring 2012
As part of security for a loan, it is not uncommon for a lender to require that someone associated with the borrower provides a personal guarantee in support of the borrower's indebtedness to the lender.
Post-nups: providing certainty or a waste of time?
Spring 2012
In 2011 the English Supreme Court enforced a pre-nup for the first time. Some people thought that this signalled the end of marriage. In New Zealand, in contrast, pre-nups have been enforceable for over 30 years. However, controversy surrounds the enforceability of 'post-nups': agreements entered into between partners after the relationship has ended.
Flooding, landslides and irate neighbours
Spring 2012
What responsibility do landowners have to protect their neighbour's property when flooding triggers a landslide from one property to the other? Is it an act of God or a preventable interference with property rights? What if the landowner has made the flooding worse by altering the course of a stream, and does it matter if there is a resource consent? These are some of the questions this article attempts to answer, based on a recent New Zealand Court of Appeal decision on the tort of nuisance, Brouwers v Street.
The Christchurch CBD Blueprint: Resource Management issues
Spring 2012
The blueprint for the Central City has been released, so what does it mean - particularly if you own property in the Central City? How does it affect existing activities in the new zones?
Where there's a will there's a way ....to divide up your estate
Spring 2012
Whether we prefer not to think about our mortality or we are putting it off for another day, many Kiwis either do not have a will or have a will that is out of date. A will does not cost much to obtain and of all of the various documents that you will sign in your life, it is perhaps the most important and influential.