Legal Practice Notes & Tips for Solicitors

Articles

AI in courts demands disciplined legal workflows

Courts are confronting AI hallucinations, but real challenge is building safe, effective legal workflows and supervision

Family property disputes expose risks of informal financial arrangements

A High Court TOLATA dispute highlights evidential difficulties, freezing injunction thresholds, and risks arising from undocumented family loans

Court clarifies parental responsibility and biological fatherhood

The Court of Appeal ruled birth registration alone does not automatically confer parental responsibility under family law

Court fee errors do not delay the clock on litigation

Two Court of Appeal judgments clarify that actions are 'brought' when filed, regardless of fee payment

Recalibrating open justice: non-party access and the limits of transparency

The introduction of a pilot for non-party access to court documents through the digital claims’ infrastructure, presents a timely opportunity to explore the open justice...

Non-disclosure and “creative” intervenors: Court of Appeal draws firm lines in De La Sala

A $34m non-disclosure dispute gives the Court of Appeal a platform to restate the test for setting aside financial orders and to warn intervenors against...

Extending suspended sentences to three years: pragmatism or pressure valve?

The Sentencing Act 2026 modestly expands judicial discretion by allowing custodial sentences of up to three years to be suspended: framed as a response to...

Guiding Parents: Early Separation Conversations and the Welfare Principle

How family practitioners can support child-focused communication at separation and use mediation to reduce conflict and litigation risk