News and views

If you’re an employer with staff on weekend rosters, there’s still time to dot your “i’s” and cross your “t’s” for ANZAC Day – the first public holiday to be “Mondayised”. Affectionately known as the “Mondayisation Bill”, the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill, will get its first outing on April 25.

In the wake of Canterbury’s devastating earthquakes, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision providing building owners, councils and insurers a clear steer on seismic strengthening.

Anyone thinking employment law is a bit of a dry, stuffy old affair need only take in some of the headline grabbers of the past few months to realise just how heated – and public – the fallout from workplace relations-gone-sour can become.

By all accounts, rental properties have dried up as quickly as the vegetation around Wanaka of late - and the accommodation drought has brought with it both out-of-luck prospective tenants and steep rent increases to boot.

​We’re very proud to announce a couple of major milestones for our Family Law expert, Deb Inder. Deb’s now a member of the New Zealand Law Society’s Panel of Mediators as a Family Specialist, making her one of only three throughout all of Central Otago.

Having recently clocked the big 2-0 in my legal career, I started doing a bit of a recreational, back-of-the-envelope tally of how many property transactions I’ve clocked up during that time – I got into the many thousands very quickly, felt old, and stopped.

After a false start and delay in implementation, the modifications to Child Support are now just around the corner, heralding significant changes to the way these payments are calculated. If you’re paying or receiving Child Support, now’s the time to ensure you understand the new regime which comes into force on April 1 2015.

In the lead up to the silly season, most law firms exist in a state of (hopefully) well-managed urgency – a frenetic dash to the finish line that is Christmas, amid a flurry of late-breaking, pressing legal matters that really can’t wait until January.