Tag: nyst legal
  • Brendan Nyst, Commercial Law, Litigation

The Shame Game

China has yet again cemented its reputation as the great 21st-century innovator by coming up with a novel new way of convincing its citizens to honour their legal and community responsibilities. In the interests of encouraging wayward debtors to pay their dues, Chinese Authorities have devised a none-too-subtle system of naming and shaming them by projecting their names and faces onto movie screens across the country, including recently during the previews to the worldwide smash hit movie Avengers: Endgame.
  • Criminal Law, Jonathan Nyst

Not Much Of A Bargain

Once upon a time, if you did the crime you did the time. If not, you walked. Nowadays, it can be somewhat more complicated. The practice of criminal law in Australia is increasingly embracing the time-honoured US model of down-and-dirty, pragmatic plea-bargaining deals between prosecution and defence, aimed at achieving a compromise acceptable to both parties. And in recent years Australian courts have tacitly encouraged that process by routinely offering discounted penalties to those who arrive at an early decision to plead guilty on mutually-agreed facts.
  • Criminal Law

Predictive Policing

Robot judges in Estonia? American AI sentencing criminals to prison? Computers predicting crimes before they even happen? One may be forgiven for thinking such concepts come straight from a science fiction novel, or the rabid rantings of an online conspiracy theorist. The truth is they are all part of today’s reality. And it looks like it’s only a matter of time before concepts like predictive policing and artificial intelligence will be an everyday feature of justice systems worldwide. 
  • Alex Somers, Criminal Law, Traffic Law

High Time For Reform?

A common submission by Queensland defence lawyers representing drug-driving offenders goes something like this: “My client had not in fact smoked cannabis for several days prior to driving, but hangover traces of the drug must have remained in his system, unbeknownst to him."
  • Litigation

Justice Denied

Between January 2013 and December 2017, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard evidence revealing that for generations many of our educational and other institutions presided over the systemic abuse of countless defenceless children. Tragically, most of those children, racked with shame, guilt and self-doubt, kept that abuse hidden from sight in deep, dark and destructive secrecy for decades. Some never whispered a word.
  • Migration, Navrinder Sathar

Migration Balance

Migration continues to feature as a red hot topic for debate on the Australian political landscape, particularly in the context of the looming Federal election.
  • Alex Somers, Criminal Law, International, Litigation

Trial By Fyre

A brand new Netflix documentary doing the rounds right now has sparked a maelstrom of controversy around the ethical and legal culpability of “social media influencers” in advertising and promoting business brands for profit. The disaster-doco “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” tells the sorry story of the exploits of Billy McFarland, the mastermind behind the failed 2017 “luxury music festival” FYRE.
  • Family Law

A Tough Job

Before you can become a plumber or a carpenter you have to undertake years of technical training, work under close and exacting supervision, sit for exams, and earn your ticket. No one gets to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant unless they first qualify for university, then study day and night for years, sit regular and sometimes arduous examinations, and pass with flying colours. But to become a parent, all you have to do is find a partner, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law

A Certain Uncertainty

It has long been accepted that the element of certainty is essential to the rule of law. Long-standing legal principle dictates that the law should be certain and accessible, so it can be easily enforced and people can know where they stand. But in an ever more complicated world, that task is becoming increasingly complex.
  • Criminal Law, Jonathan Nyst, Sport

The Thin Blue Line

Everyone who’s ever punt-kicked a Sherrin has chimed in to have their say on the recent brew-ha-ha between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. But the controversy may be set to spread far beyond Aussie rules football.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Traffic Law

The Road Ahead

By the time the ambulance arrived the young man in the front passenger seat was already dangerously close to death. His once fit, handsome best mate was now crumpled and bloodstained beside him, folded in awkward angles across the twisted steering wheel, his pelvis and both arms shattered in various places. The other two passengers, recently happy and carefree youngsters, were pathetically slumped at the roadside, bloodied and bewildered by the horror of sudden and devastating developments.
  • Navrinder Sathar, Wills and Estates

Resting Peacefully

Unfortunately, sooner or later we all have to turn our minds to the prospect of shuffling off this mortal coil. For most of us, when we do the exercise inevitably entails a lot of care and consternation, stipulating just who should get what in the all-important terms of our final will and testament. But in the process what is often overlooked is one of the most vital questions of all – who should be appointed as executor of the estate?