Ocean Road Magazine Summer Issue 2016 – Chris Nyst Interview
I am thrilled to see that the current 2016 Summer Issue of the prominent lifestyle publication Ocean Road Magazine features as its cover story our own founder and principal Chris Nyst. Ocean Road is a high quality quarterly publication that celebrates the many wonderful aspects of the Gold Coast region – it’s fabulous restaurants and fashion outlets, inspiring architecture, world-class events, unparalleled lifestyle and, not least of all, its incredible characters, of whom Chris is certainly one. The publishers have done a terrific job of showcasing Chris’s life and achievements, and it is well worth a read. You can check it out at by clicking here.
Stolen Children – Custody And International Child Abduction
Family law disputes often involve haggling over tens or hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of property, sometimes even more. With that much money at stake, things can get nasty.
But without doubt the most bitter family law battles of all invariably are not the ones that concern dollars and cents, but the ones that revolve around custody and access to the children of the marriage. In the context of marriage breakdown the most terrifying prospect for any parent is the threat of international child abduction by a spouse and unfortunately, in recent decades, Australia has witnessed an alarming rise in the incidence of such abductions, spawned by the growing ease and affordability of international travel, the increasing proliferation of bi-cultural marriage, and the rapid escalation of the divorce rate.
Dogs and Small Children
The old show business adage warns you should never work with animals or children. They’re unruly, unpredictable, and way too cute, and in the end they’re always going to steal the show. It’s a pearl of wisdom usually attributed to the curmudgeonly actor-comedian W C Fields, of whom writer Leo Rosten once quipped “Any man who hates dogs and small children can’t be all bad.”
For The Record…
Last week the press had a field day taking pot-shots at Southport magistrate Bernadette Callaghan for ordering police to remove handcuffs from a defendant appearing in court. When the man subsequently made a run for it, according to newspaper reports police went into a spin, with one ‘police source’ accusing the magistrate of treating herself as being “above the law” because she refused to have the defendant manacled in her courtroom, and another high-ranking officer threatening to boycott the courts over the matter.
The Hero Of Palmyra
The armed militants of Daesh, pillaging and plundering their way across the Middle East, proclaim themselves heroes of Islam. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes.
New Fix For Serial Junkies
If you’re hooked, as I am, on the phenomenally popular podcast, Serial, crank up those earphones and get ready for a new round of infuriating twists and turns.
Would You Believe…
Criminal defence lawyers often deal with desperate people – desperate to clear their name, desperate to establish their innocence, sometimes just desperate to avoid their guilt. And desperate people take desperate measures.
Sweet Little Fish
Little fish are sweet. High profile defamation actions and messy murder trials may make for big headlines, but from a lawyer’s point of view the smaller, seemingly less significant cases are just as challenging and (provided you finish first, and not just a commendable second) every bit as satisfying.
Taking On The State
Experienced lawyers will tell you, you can’t really call yourself a litigator until you’ve won the unwinnable case, and lost the un-loseable. I’ve had more than my share of hopeless cases, with varying results, but here’s one even I wouldn’t like to take on.
From Little Things
Last week ‘New York’s Finest’ were reaching for their Smartphones, posting happy snaps of panhandlers begging on Broadway and vagrants urinating in the streets. What the…?!
A Fine Commercial Line – Franchising Agreements And Breach Of Contract
Last month the Nyst Legal commercial litigation team spent nearly two weeks in the Federal Court in Melbourne, flanked by a phalanx of QC’s, arguing the toss about exactly how far businesses can and can’t go in talking up their product to the customers of their commercial competitors.
Policy or Politics?
Last week the Supreme Court ordered the Queensland Parole Board to pay convicted bank robber Brenden Abbott’s legal costs because it failed to make a timely decision on his parole application. The Board had sat on Abbott’s application for 389 days, unable to decide whether or not it should release the so-called ‘Postcard Bandit’.
Why? What was the problem? The only answer I have is “It’s complicated.”