Protecting your inheritance from your spouse or partner
How do I protect my inheritance from my spouse or partner? Sometimes we are lucky enough to receive a gift or inheritance from family members, either while they are alive…
Welcome to the Sharp Tudhope Lawyers’ blog. Here you will find topical information and advice relating to a wide range of areas of law, written by our legal experts.
Legal advice you can trust from a team with deep connections to our community.
Pre-settlement Inspection Complete And Worried Your House May Not Be A Home?
Buying a new home is an exciting time but what happens when the pre-settlement inspection results in a few surprises? Sometimes we come across clients who: have been misled as…
It’s So Unfair! Review Your Contracts Now To Ensure Your Customers Don’t Say This About You.
Consumer NZ has spoken publicly this week about “unfair” terms in consumer contracts. Changes to the Fair Trading Act 1986 (“FTA”) which came into effect last year aim to provide…
Getting It Signed
With the ever increasing use of technology the need to sign a document on paper is becoming more and more redundant. Under the Electronic Transactions Act 2002 (“the Act”) certain…
Are You Ready For 4 April 2016?
On 4 April 2016 the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 comes into force. This means that you only have two months to ensure that your business complies with the new legal requirements. We can help by: Reviewing your health and safety policy; Reviewing how you engage with employees about health and safety; Identifying…
New Employment Standards Bill Introduced
On 13 August the Government introduced the Employment Standards Legislation Bill. In summary it: provides for stronger and more effective enforcement of employment standards such as the minimum wage and holidays entitlements; and extends parental leave and payments to more workers and increases the flexibility of the parental leave scheme; prohibits certain practices in employment…
Do’s And Don’ts Of Dealing With Sickly Staff
A recent TVNZ story has highlighted the fact that some employers have begun encouraging staff not to take sick leave by giving them an end of year bonus. What it didn’t discuss is how to deal with employees who continue to come to work, despite being clearly unwell. Those employees often have genuine reasons for continuing to…
Five Key Changes To The Health And Safety Reform Bill
We now have some certainty about the future of health and safety law in New Zealand: on Friday the Transport and Industrial Select Committee finally reported back on the Bill. Five of the key changes to the Bill (some of which had been well-rehearsed in the media) include: Employers must still engage with employees and…
Employment Law Standards Bill To Be Introduced To Parliament
An Employment Standards Bill will be introduced to Parliament later in 2015 with measures to prevent unfair employment practices. To read the full statement from Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse, click here.
Fair Pay For A Day’s Work?
Ever wondered how much the person delivering those pamphlets to your letterbox gets paid? Labour’s David Parker says not enough: his member’s bill, which would ensure that they are paid at least minimum wage, was drawn from the ballot last week. Currently, people such as couriers, paper and pamphlet deliverers can be paid less than…