Certain legal requirements must be met for a separation agreement to be binding. One of those requirements is for both parties to receive independent legal advice and have the effects and implications of the agreement explained to them. Both parties must receive an explanation of what they would have been entitled to under the Property [...]
Any person claiming to be entitled to or beneficially interested in any land, or any person transferring land to be held on trust, is allowed to lodge a caveat preventing dealings with the land. In this Blog I look at how to remove a caveat against dealings. Removing a caveat There are three ways to [...]
In short, the Bank has sent you to a lawyer to cover its own butt. In certain circumstances the Bank is put on notice and taken to have presumed that the guarantor has been unduly influenced by the borrower to give a guarantee. As a result, the Bank will be unable to enforce the guarantee. [...]
Earlier this year I caught the surfing bug. This has led me to consider the environment almost daily. I have recently been looking for ways to incorporate surfing into my job as a lawyer. I thought this was impossible and perhaps a silly idea until I came across some submissions written by a Sumner Lawyer [...]
The Revenue Minister Peter Dunne today confirmed by media statement that gift duty will be abolished. The legislation abolishing gift duty will be passed this month and will take effect from 1 October 2011. The Government has assessed the impact of the repeal of gift duty on income tax, creditor protection and social assistance and [...]
Generally if you give someone a substantial gift you will have to pay gift duty. However, if you make a gift to a charity you do not have to pay gift duty. For example, a society (XYZ Society Incorporated) can transfer land to a charity (XYZ Trust) for free without paying gift duty. The society [...]
If you have loaned someone money and registered mortgage over their property as security you are a "mortgagee". If the borrower has stopped making interest and principal repayments there is a process you need to follow to enforce your rights under the mortgage. What can you do? If the borrower is in default because they [...]
Copyright is a property right that exists in original copyright works. This property right is a type of intellectual property. Copyright work includes: literary works e.g. emails, novels, lyrics, tables and compilations, computer programmes; dramatic works e.g. scripts; musical works e.g. sheet music; artistic works e.g. photos, diagrams, drawings, sculptures, maps, paintings; sound recordings (as [...]
Patent protection is a type of intellectual property. The aim of the patent regime is to provide protection by a system of registration that grants a limited-term monopoly for inventions; to provide the owner with an exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a period of up to 20 years, and provide protection against [...]
Since 2008 the witnessing requirements for enduring powers of attorney have been very strict. Due to a potential conflict of interest the law required the donor (the person appointing the attorney) to have their signature witnessed by a lawyer who is independent of the attorney. That meant that a lawyer who acts for both the [...]
