Anna Ryan, Associate and James Dalgleish, Solicitor discuss the recent decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia to give credit card companies the power to limit what retailers charge customers for credit card surcharges.  The actions of the Australian and New Zealand watchdogs indicate that this issue is being taken seriously. 

Business owners often don't give any thought to their business structure or consideration as to whether the current business entity is still suitable for the type of work undertaken for the size of the business, until it is too late.  Claire Evans, Associate, discusses how businesses should consider their current structure as this can change as your business grows.  

Claire Evans, Associate, discusses the key features of a New Zealand Limited Partnership.

Claire specialises in securities, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, establishing and restructuring corporate structures and investment funds.

Following recent announcments from New Zealand Post on its proposed changes to the rural mail delivery service, Anna Chartres, Associate, discusses what this would mean for those at rural delivery addresses and how you can provide your feedback by way of a submission.

We receive a lot of immigration enquiries from farm workers employed in the South Island.  Their roles range from general farm labourers through to herd or farm managers.  Hetish Lochan who specialises in immigraiton and based in our Queenstown office wrote the attached article for the Rural South publication

Jane Walsh discusses the minefield of planning regulations and the needs of the modern farmer to understand their rights, obligations and duties in respect of district and regional planning documents. 

This article was published in Rural South's December 2012 issue.

Duncan Webb, partner, discusses another hot topic on discipline within the legal arena.  NZ Lawyer published this article in its December issue.

Historically, many agreements to graze stock between farmers have been flexible,undetermined ‘handshake’ agreements. Due to changes in legislation these “handshake” agreements are often no longer practical. Maddy Thwaites and Elizabeth Neazor of Lane Neave's Dispute Resolution Team discusses this topic further in the rural publication Straight Furrow

Nicola Appleton, an Associate with Lane Neave's Immigration team, discusses the potential for an employer to face fines for an unintentional failure to meet immigration requirements. 

Nicola comes from a farming background and has practised exclusively in the field of immigratoin for over 12 years.  Nicola's article  was published recently in the Rural South newspaper.

In this article Lane Neave discusses a recent landmark decision.  For specific securities law advice contact Gerard Dale, Partner - gerard.dale@laneneave.co.nz or Tim Brown, Associate - tim.brown@laneneave.co.nz

Read Jane Walsh's third article in Rural South on Ecan's proposed restrictions on farming intensification including some helpful tips for completing submissions

Glenn Jones and Karen Welsford, members of the Lane Neave Insurance team, raise two particular issues for Christchurch business owners under their business interruption insurance policies: The extent to which insurers are entitled to reduce claims on the basis of depopulation and whether cover may be restricted to the cover under a policy extension.

In this article Sam Nelson considers the Government released draft regulations and a Ministerial directive letter in relation to overseas investment in New Zealand farms on 9 December 2010. The regulations and directive letter took effect on 13 January 2011.