Subscribe
Subscribe to the Turner Hopkins Legal News and Opinion Newsletter
Subscribe to the Turner Hopkins Legal News and Opinion Newsletter
Obtaining a court judgment overseas is often not the end of the recovery process. If the person or company that owes you money is in New Zealand or holds assets here, further steps may be needed before the judgment can be enforced and the money recovered.
Likewise, if an overseas judgment is being enforced against you or your business in New Zealand, you should understand your position promptly. Depending on the circumstances, there may be grounds to challenge the enforcement process, seek a stay, negotiate a resolution, or otherwise protect your interests.
Cross lease ownership can feel much like owning an ordinary house until somebody wants to change the building. Legally, however, a cross lease is quite different from owning a separate fee simple lot.
Each owner usually owns a share of the underlying land together with the other owners, while separately holding a long-term lease of their particular flat.
Cross leases have an impressive ability to turn an ordinary garage into a complicated legal issue. A purchaser looks at the flats plan, notices the garage is missing and suddenly there is talk of a defective flats plan, surveyors, neighbour consent and an expensive cross-lease update.
Sometimes that concern is justified. But not always.
A detached garage or other independent structure situated within an area allocated for the exclusive use of one cross-lease owner does not automatically make the flats plan defective simply because it is not shown on the plan.
Turner Hopkins is very proud to have now been selected as one of the few New Zealand law firms to become an accredited partner of JustFund, Australasia’s leading family law litigation finance provider.
The JustFund model allows clients of our firm to obtain loans specifically designed to meet their legal expenses. This means that clients can now obtain legal representation without any upfront cost. Payment of the legal fees is ultimately met from the relationship property recovered once settlement of any disputes and all relationship property matters has been resolved.
Take another look at the image above. It looks convincing enough right? The lighting, detail and overall scene all appear perfectly plausible and very much “New Zealand”. But is it a genuine photograph, or was it created by artificial intelligence (AI)? If you are not entirely sure, that is rather the point.
AI can now create writing, images, video and audio that look remarkably authentic and can fool almost anyone. It is also becoming part of everyday business: drafting emails, summarising documents, answering customer questions and helping people make important, often life-changing decisions. Used well, it can save considerable time, however used carelessly, it can produce confident nonsense, expose private information or create a very convincing record of something that never actually happened. We will reveal the answer about the image shortly.
As winter approaches, many of us start turning our minds to the practical things: checking the gutters, finding the warm coats, pretending we know how to programme the heat pump, and wondering why the school term always seems to end at exactly the busiest possible time.
It is also a sensible time to take stock of the legal arrangements that sit quietly in the background of everyday life — until they suddenly do not. Property decisions, parenting arrangements, relationship changes, and family obligations all have a habit of becoming more stressful when people are busy, tired, or trying to make plans around work, school holidays, travel, and the weather.
If someone owes you money and you have a court judgment, the judgment does not always mean you will be paid straight away. The judgment says the money is owed. If the debtor still does not pay, you may need to take another step to collect the money.
A garnishee application is one way to do this. It can be used when another person, business, bank, or organisation owes money to the debtor or is holding money for the debtor. You can ask the Court to order that third party to pay the money to you instead of paying it to the debtor.
Election years are not especially relaxing, especially if your future depends on immigration policy and whether a change in Government might influence your long-term future in New Zealand.
A politician gives a speech about immigration being too high, another warns that the country needs to protect its social cohesion, someone else promises a tougher system. Headlines follow, social media does what social media does, and people who are halfway through planning a move to New Zealand start wondering whether they should unpack their suitcase.