Tag: solicitor
  • Criminal Law, Human Rights, Jonathan Nyst

Is The Best Defence Really A Good Tay-Tay Song?

In this day and age, virtually everyone has high quality audio-visual recording equipment right at their fingertips. Our ever-ready mobile phone can record and disseminate information worldwide with the click of one or two buttons. So it's perhaps no wonder so many get a little bit click-happy nowadays when they find themselves in the presence of the Thin Blue Line.
  • Announcements, Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Jonathan Nyst

Jonathan Nyst Shortlisted For Law Award

As the proud father, and principal of Nyst Legal, I am extremely chuffed to be able to announce that this week, for the second year in succession, my youngest son, and Nyst Legal Senior Associate, Jonathan Nyst, has been shortlisted as one of the finalists in the Criminal Law division of the national Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards.
  • Jonathan Nyst, Opinion, Technology

Cat-O-Strophic Technology

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been vast, not least of all in the development of digital communication all around the globe. It is now the norm for enterprises large and small to go online, working from home, holding meetings virtually by Skype, or Zoom, or TeamViewer, and rarely, if ever, speaking with their colleagues face to face. It’s easier, cheaper, and far more convenient, and business leaders everywhere have heralded the virtual communication revolution as the brave new world.
  • Criminal Law, Jonathan Nyst

Hard Cases

The familiar legal adage "Hard cases make bad law" dates back at least as far as the early 1800s. It points to the danger of reacting to an extreme case by making a general, harsh and inflexible law to cover all cases. Wisdom dictates, the adage suggests, that laws are better drafted to target the average - and therefore more common – cases, rather than the extreme ones.
  • Human Rights, Nicola Ellis

Still Sorry

Between 1905 and 1970, generations of First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families, under a policy of so-called ‘protection.’ The 1995 Bringing Them Home report estimated that between ten and thirty-three per cent of all First Nations children were taken from their loved ones.
  • Privacy

A Matter Of Privilege

Confidential communications between lawyers and their clients are sacrosanct. They are subject to legal professional privilege, which means they cannot be disclosed by anyone – including the lawyer – to anyone else - including the government, the courts, the police, or anyone at all - without the client’s express authorisation. That principle has been around for about 500 years, and remains a fundamental tenant of our legal system. But it has, at times, been sorely tested.
  • Brendan Nyst, Opinion

The Lucky Country

This week, as we paused to remember, on the 102nd Remembrance Day, those who fell in foreign fields to defend and preserve our liberties, hopefully we also reflected on a great deal more.
  • Human Rights, Jonathan Nyst, Politics

A Very Good Start

The late great Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison for his opposition to the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. When he was finally released from custody in 1990, he famously said "To deny a person their human rights is to challenge their very humanity."
  • Criminal Law, Entertainment, Jonathan Nyst, Sport

Racy Behaviour

This weekend’s Castrol Gold Coast 600 is yet another reminder that some people just seem to be a whole lot happier when someone gets their gear off.
  • Criminal Law

Send In The Clowns

The circus is in town.  A crazy new phenomenon is sweeping across the US, Europe, and now even Australia. It trumps the Trump, it’s scarier than Ruddy’s run at the UN, and it’s so weird it even out-weirds planking, if that’s actually possible. Scary killer clowns have taken to lurking on our streets, hiding in the shadows and around corners, waiting to maniacally leap out and scare the living socks off us.
  • Chris Nyst, Entertainment, International, Privacy, Sport, Technology

Attack Of The Drones

With the currently almost endemic proliferation in Australian society of audio- and video-recording mobile phones, and the recent announcement by CASA of the relaxation of laws and regulations around the use of surveillance drones in Australian airspace, perhaps it’s time we all sat down to have a good hard rethink about some of our rules around privacy in this country.
  • Family Law, Pets

Bringing Up Baby

When couples are separating, and negotiating who gets what from the joint property pool, pets (most frequently dogs and cats) are often front and centre in the equation. Usually, the parties are able to negotiate an informal, mutually-acceptable agreement as to custody of their four-legged friends. But it’s not always the case. Sometimes formal orders or agreements are needed to lock down precisely who gets Poochie and on what terms. Dedicating court time to determining the custody of cats and dogs may be thought by some to be an inefficient use of valuable resources, but the fact is family pets often have a profound emotional value to their owners, and that just can’t be ignored.