The sued advocate strikes back - April 2023 update
- Kim Leighton
- Apr 10, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 21, 2023
UPDATE: On 19 April 2023 there was a hearing at the High Court in Hamilton. Justice Moore reserved his decision on the defendants' application to strike out employment advocate Allan Halse's claim. In the year since Halse filed his claim, the law firm Norris Ward McKinnon (NWM) succeeded in having Halse's company placed in liquidation. The firm's "gloat post" on Facebook and LinkedIn was taken down, but not before a screenshot of it ended up in an article by the National Business Review, and Halse's own Facebook page.
NWM failed to have Halse declared bankrupt because he was able to pay a disputed penalty just in time. Rangiura Trust Board subsequently abandoned its claim against Halse for costs.
An allegation of perjury by one of the defendants has been made, and whether that sees the light of day will depend on the High Court's preliminary decision on whether the proceedings will progress to the next phase.
Background
In 2017 and 2018, Rangiura Trust Board (rest home) had a severe bullying problem and about a dozen employees engaged the services of employment advocacy company Culturesafe NZ Ltd. The fallout included the replacement of the General Manager and the suing of Culturesafe and its director.
This is far from resolved and there are now two fresh proceedings in the High Court. Rangiura (RPW) applied to have Culturesafe placed in liquidation (see update), and Culturesafe’s director is suing the members of Rangiura Trust Board, its external firm and two of its partners for deceit, fraud, conspiracy to defraud and knowing assistance.
We understand that a failure to deal with payroll fraud and gagging of whistleblowers (of which bullying was an apparent symptom) has been alleged.
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