Blackwood Montagna

Blackwood Montagna Your local Pukekohe lawyers. Here when life gets complex. We combine big-firm expertise with small-town care.

Our team supports individuals, families, and businesses across Franklin and Auckland with clear, practical legal advice.

There's a common assumption that having a lawyer draft your will costs several times what an online kit does, and it's a...
05/10/2026

There's a common assumption that having a lawyer draft your will costs several times what an online kit does, and it's a large part of why so many people either put the job off or do it themselves.⁠
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Until 1 December, we are drafting wills for a fixed fee of $399+GST for one person, or $649+GST for a couple, with no admin fee added on top. For that you get a lawyer who takes your instructions, drafts the will around your actual circumstances and checks it with you before you sign, with the whole process done in around four weeks.⁠
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The price sits close to what people expect to pay for doing it themselves. The difference is that someone qualified has looked at it, for the same reason you'd want a professional eye on a contract or a tax return.⁠
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Get your lawyer-drafted fixed-fee will done in four weeks. Start here: https://bmlegal.co.nz/online-forms/wills/

03/10/2026

Will AI replace your lawyer? It is a fair question and clients are starting to ask it. Artificial intelligence can draft, summarise and search faster than any person, and a firm that pretends otherwise is not being straight with you.⁠
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What it cannot do is know what you have not told it, notice the detail in your circumstances that changes the answer, or stand behind the advice when it matters. That part is the job. In this reel Peter talks about where AI fits at Blackwood Montagna, where it does not, and why the firm's view is that the technology should make good lawyers more available to you rather than less.⁠
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For the business side of the same question, Ashley Smith's article on AI in business is on our website.

AI is now writing product descriptions, answering customers and drafting documents for businesses across New Zealand, of...
30/09/2026

AI is now writing product descriptions, answering customers and drafting documents for businesses across New Zealand, often more widely than the people running those businesses realise. That is the starting point of Peter's latest article, and it comes with a fact worth sitting with: under the Fair Trading Act, if AI-generated content misleads a customer, the liability sits with your business and not with the software provider.

Peter sets out the three legal pressure points every business using AI needs to understand, from consumer law to offshore terms of service to the Privacy Act 2020, and three practical steps to take now.

Read the full article: https://bmlegal.co.nz/ai-in-business-opportunity-risk-andwhat-nz-companies-must-get-right-now/

26/09/2026

We've built this firm around the Franklin community because we're part of it. Our team lives here, works here, and understands the businesses and families we act for, which means the advice you get is grounded in a real understanding of what you're dealing with rather than a generic answer pulled off a shelf.

Property, business, employment, family, wills and estates. Whatever brings you through the door, you'll find a team that listens properly, explains things plainly, and gets on with it.

Protecting what you've built. Powering what comes next.

Most personal grievances in New Zealand must be raised with your employer within 90 days of the incident. Miss that wind...
21/09/2026

Most personal grievances in New Zealand must be raised with your employer within 90 days of the incident. Miss that window and, in most cases, the door closes however strong the complaint. The exception is sexual harassment, where the period is twelve months for conduct after 13 June 2023.⁠
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A personal grievance is the formal way an employee raises unfair or unlawful treatment: an unjustified dismissal, being disadvantaged in your role, discrimination, harassment, or being penalised for exercising your rights. The process runs from raising it in writing with your employer, to mediation through MBIE, to the Employment Relations Authority if it is still unresolved.⁠
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The first step is knowing the clock is running. Our employment team can tell you quickly whether you have grounds and what to do next. Find out more: https://bmlegal.co.nz/personal-grievances-in-new-zealand/

19/09/2026

We've simplified the way we set up wills and enduring powers of attorney, and it comes down to one change: most of the onboarding now happens online, so we can gather what we need before you come in and have your documents drafted and back to you considerably faster than we could a few years ago.

You still sit down with a lawyer who knows Franklin and takes the time to understand what you're protecting and who you're protecting it for. The paperwork just gets out of the way first.

In between, our newsletter keeps you across the practical legal updates that actually affect you, so nothing arrives as a surprise.

The feedback we hear most often is that clients feel heard, that we're approachable, and that they trust us to deliver.

September is Wills Month. If yours has been sitting on the list, it's a good time to make the call. Start the onboarding process now: https://bmlegal.co.nz/online-forms/onboarding/

It started with the parking. Then the notes in the letterbox. Then someone standing at the end of the driveway at ten at...
12/09/2026

It started with the parking. Then the notes in the letterbox. Then someone standing at the end of the driveway at ten at night, saying nothing, just standing there.

Nobody arrives at this situation all at once. It builds, one small thing at a time, and because each incident on its own sounds minor when you say it out loud, most people never mention it to anyone. They assume the law is for something worse than what is happening to them.

It is not. Under the Harassment Act 1997, harassment is a pattern of behaviour directed at you on at least two separate occasions within a 12-month period. Repeated calls, texts or emails. Following, watching or loitering near your home or workplace. Repeated visits that cause distress. Confrontational conduct that escalates over time. None of it has to be violent, and it most often arises between neighbours, over boundaries, noise, parking, pets or property use.

If the District Court is satisfied the harassment has occurred and is likely to continue, it can make a restraining order stopping contact, stopping the person approaching your property, and stopping the behaviour. Breaching that order is a criminal offence carrying a fine or imprisonment. That is what gives it teeth.

Our solicitor Ashley Smith has written the full picture, including what the Court weighs up and what evidence helps: https://bmlegal.co.nz/harassment-and-restraining-orders-in-new-zealand-civil-harassment/

If you are in immediate danger, call 111.

People use the two terms as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and applying for the wrong one costs time you ...
09/09/2026

People use the two terms as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and applying for the wrong one costs time you may not have.

A protection order is for someone you are or were in a family relationship with. A partner, an ex-partner, a family member, someone you have lived with. That goes to the Family Court under the Family Violence Act 2018.

A restraining order covers everybody else. A neighbour, a colleague, a former friend, a stranger. That goes to the District Court under the Harassment Act 1997, and it needs a pattern of behaviour: at least two specified acts within the past 12 months.

The relationship determines the door. Everything else follows from that.

Not sure which applies to your situation? A short conversation with us will tell you. https://bmlegal.co.nz/contact/

Happy Father's Day to the dads, stepdads, grandads and father figures across Franklin.The ones up before dawn for Saturd...
05/09/2026

Happy Father's Day to the dads, stepdads, grandads and father figures across Franklin.

The ones up before dawn for Saturday sport. The ones who've rebuilt the same deck three times. The ones everyone rings first when something goes wrong.

Today is yours. From all of us at Blackwood Montagna, enjoy it.

05/09/2026

On 26 May this year, stalking became a stand-alone criminal offence in New Zealand for the first time.

Before that, someone following you, watching your house or flooding your phone left you with mostly civil options, and a wait. That has changed, and most people do not yet know it has.

The civil route has not gone anywhere, and for many people it is still the faster one. What has changed is that there are now two doors, and knowing which one to walk through is the difference between months and weeks.

If you are in immediate danger, call 111.

If this is happening to you, there are more options than there were three months ago. Talk to us: https://bmlegal.co.nz/contact/

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7 Paerata Road
Pukekohe East
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