Latest News

2025

• Smart Mobile - The CBA has been approached by Oslo from Smart Start regarding their alcohol breathalyser device. They believe the device may be of particular interest to members of the Criminal Bar. See here for more information. 

• An open letter to CBA members on behalf of Duty Lawyers - Please see correspondence here from one of our members, Dennis Ansley, who has asked us to pass his letter onto our membership.

• One-year free membership - The Criminal Bar Association is pleased to announce that all new members who sign up will get their first year free. Please contact enquiries@criminalbar.org.nz to redeem this exclusive offer.

• Urgent lawyer access to defendants in custody - see here for details for who to contact for urgent access to defendants in custody.  

• Courtroom Security - The CBA is concerned that security measures have been ramped up in terms of searches carried out on lawyers as they enter court buildings, but that security is deficient in other ways. We have been involved in correspondence with the Chief Justice and the Secretary of Justice.  We are hoping to negotiate an outcome that optimises your safety while at the same time doesn’t necessitate time-consuming searches of lawyers and their possessions.  Discussions with the Ministry of Justice are ongoing. See here latest correspondence regarding this issue.

• Communications between Corrections and the Criminal Bar Association - The CBA wrote to Corrections last month raising concerns about developments that have arisen in relation to compassionate bail applications.

  Please find attached our communications including the response we received from Corrections. 

• Submissions made on behalf if the Criminal Bar Association - The CBA made submissions on the following bills before currently before the Select Committee. See here for the submission for Treaty Principles Bill and here for the submission to the Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill. A big thank you to Committee members Kris Gledhill, Andy Hill and Lucie Scott for their work over the holiday break drafting these submissions

2024

• The Criminal Bar Associations Special General Meeting (SGM) will be held online via Zoom on Wednesday 4 December 2024 at 1.15pm. The Zoom link will be provided on the day.  This Special General Meeting is being held for members of the Criminal Bar Association to vote on the proposed resolutions about taking part in industrial action. Voting will take place by way of an online poll. You can view the notice here. Please click here for access to various documents relevant to the issues around Legal Aid and Duty Lawyer rates. We have also established a forum on the CBA website where members can express their views as part of a discussion.  Although indications so far have been overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action, I acknowledge the views of those who dissent.  I want our members to make an informed decision when you vote on 4 December 2024.  

• Meeting with Tracey Baguley - Last month, our vice-president Sumudu Thode met with Tracey Baguley. Issues discussed included:

  • further funding required for lawyers under the new CRH protocol (where fixed fees are inadequate)
  • further funding for compassionate bail applications made directly to the Department of Corrections
  • Difficulties in contacting case managers via email or phone
  • Delay in payments, amendments to grant being approved or reassignments
    

   

  We will continue these discussions with the Ministry on a monthly basis. As always, if you have any issues you can contact kamini.McCarthy@justice.govt.nz or greg.Ishikawa-Pearson@justice.govt.nz about individual cases.

• Meeting with Department of Corrections

  Sumudu Thode also attended our monthly meetings with stakeholders of the Department of Corrections.

  MECF are in the process of setting up an international unit and are hoping to finalise this prior to Christmas. The unit will have video calling capabilities so that they can be in contact with their whānau overseas.

  There were significant discussions about seeking compassionate bail through the Department. We have sought that a letter be provided by the Department outlining each prison’s position (including staff availability). Once this is received, we will circulate this to our members.

• Chief Justice’s Criminal Practice Committee Meeting

  On Friday 29 November 2024, Chris Wilkinson-Smith attended the Criminal Practice Committee meeting. There was good discussion on the issues raised by the CBA, which included security checks for lawyers at Courthouses and disclosure.

   Scanning of lawyers

  The CBA has asserted that it is unnecessary for lawyers to go through security screening at Court. We view it as a disproportionate intrusion on privacy for a negligible threat.

  The Secretary for Justice (Andrew Kibblewhite) initially responded in writing that the MoJ had no intention to change this policy. However, he appears to have softened on this and is open to the possibility of lawyers not being treated as members of the public if security staff recognize them (i.e.  local lawyers) or if the lawyers can produce identification.

  We plan to continue to keep the pressure on in relation to this issue in 2025, to try to make your job easier. We will update you on any changes in the new year.

  Local Justice network welcomes the CBA!
  
  There has been some mixed messaging and differences in approaches as to whether CBA representatives are welcome at Local Justice Network Meetings after a revamp.

  After discussions, the CBA have been advised that we have a seat at these meetings again. If there are any issues to raise, please get in touch with our executive committee or your local representative.

  Disclosure
  Rowe DCJ is chairing a group that plans to apply the High Court disclosure practice note to the District Court. It is envisaged that there will be some variation to take to into account the different work load in District Court. Some draft guidelines for the District Court will be distributed shortly.

• LSJN and Sentencing meetings at ADC

  Annabel Ives attended the ADC LJSN and the Sentencing Framework meeting this month on behalf of the CBA. A significant focus of both meetings was 'timeliness’ and clearing backlog.

  Items of more relevance to CBA members include:

   Local Justice Sector Network

  Compassionate bail – the protocol sent out by ADC Judges seems to be more of a work in progress than a formal declaration. There was considerable discussion by the defence bars members present as to the difficulties in providing affidavit evidence on such short notice especially from remand prisoners given delays with in person visits. The motivation behind any change in compassionate bail applications seems to be to somehow get corrections to ‘step up’ , this issue has been parked and it to be discussed further with Corrections.
  

  Judge for Saturday Courts – this is being looked into. Annabel indicated that generally criminal bar would support but that ability for counsel to appear via VMR as a given would be beneficial. The concern seems to be that at ADC at least there are often between 5 -10 defendants on  Monday who are in custody simply because of breach on Crown charges and / or DCJ only bail but without actual or strong opposition to bail.

   Sentencing

  Reminder to use the new email for ALL sentence matters – akdc.sentence@justice.govt.nz – and to put sentencing date in the subject line as then court staff can prioritize

  Counsel are encouraged to provide two addresses for EM sentence so that if one is not available / suitable the second can be assessed without the need for an appearance and an adjournment

  Probation officers are to be encouraged to liaise with defence counsel early if there are issues with addresses.

   

• Solicitor-General’s Prosecution Guidelines (2024) These have now been released. Click here to see the updated guidelines.

• The new Bail Application Scheduling Framework has been released. Click here to see the new guidelines.  

• The Honourable Justice Simon Moore's Valedictory Sitting will be at the Auckland High Court on Thursday, 14 November 2024 at 4.00pm. Click here for more information.

• The Honourable Justice Cooper’s Final Sitting will be held at the Court of Appeal in Courtroom One on Tuesday, 19 November at 4:00 pm. 

  Please let me know (president@criminalbar.org.nz) by 27 October if you wish to attend on behalf of the CBA. 

• Thats Just Criminal podcast is now live 

• AnS Consulting Limited – Phone Data: One of the Conference presenters was A Sathyendran (“Sathy”).  Sathy has helpfully provided the two attached documents for us to circulate to you, in relation to requests of the Police regarding cellphone data. The first document here is for you to adopt and give to police to get cell phone data.  The second document here provides an explanation of why the requested information is needed.  

• Discount code for evidence text: As usual Associate Professor Scott Optican presented an informative and humorous update on the law of evidence, at the Conference.  See here for the latest edition of Mahoney on Evidence. “CBA24” is the code for a 20% discount.

• The Criminal Bar Association provided feedback to Corrections and the Ministry of Justice on the proposal to move defendants remanded in custody closer to their trial location three weeks before trial. See here for the Ministry of Justice's response to our letter and the proposed changes that will be implemented.

• Legal Eagles Soaring From Their Eyries – click here to read an opinion piece penned by CBA committee member Steven Zindel.

• Sentencing:  Discounts for youth: click here to read (High Court Judge’s clerk) Kelci Alderton-Armstrong’s recent New Zealand Law Review article on “The Judicial Approach to the Youth Discount in Aotearoa New Zealand”

•  The CBA sent a letter to Legal Aid in response to the implications of other funded reports due to the defunding of section 27 reports. You can read this here. My thanks are due to James Gurnick from our executive committee who helped with this.

• The CBA sent submissions to the Chief District Court Judge on the proposed draft bail protocol. You can read the submissions here. A huge thank you to executive committee members Annabel Ives, Emma Priest and Sarah Saunderson-Warner who worked on these.

• The Chief District Court Judge has released a Limited Licence Practice Note. His Honour issued the Practice Note in order to get greater consistency in how applications for a limited licence under the Land Transport Act 1998 are dealt with in the District Court. You can read this here

• SC 75/2022 Justin Richard Burke v The King - 

  The Supreme Court’s decision in Burke was released today - the decision can be found here. The decision relates to section 66(2) party liability in the context of homicide (manslaughter). Many thanks are due to Chris Wilkinson-Smith who appeared as lead counsel for the Criminal Bar Association as intervener, together with Adam Simperingham.  Chris and Adam received help from Associate Professor James Mehigan from Canterbury University Law Faculty, and Rory Bevins (University of Otago/Woodward Chrisp).

• Quentin Duff has asked us to extend an invitation to our CBA members (and anyone else) to attend the Larry Pozner Cross examination workshop this weekend. Details can be found here and the agenda here. Quentin has arranged to live stream this event, at the cost of $200 plus GST. This will make the event more accessible for lawyers who do not live in Auckland. If you wish to register to attend on-line, please email your expression of interest to Pozner@mataichambers.com and type STREAMING EOI into the subject heading.

• The District Court Annual Report has been released. District-Court-Annual-Report-2023.pdf (districtcourts.govt.nz)

• The CBA have written to the Minister of Justice about the concerns held for the state of the legal profession. Letter to the Minister of Justice 18.03.24.pdf

• The CBA have written to legal aid asking for them to comment about recent slow payments which some members have recently spoken to us about. The commissioner’s response is attached here. Response from Legal Services Commissoner.pdf

• Our own Kris Gledhill has authored this article on the scrapping of funding for s27 reports. https://theconversation.com/ending-legal-aid-for-cultural-reports-at-sentencing-may-only-make-court-hearings-longer-and-costlier-223627

• In August 2023 the Office of the Inspectorate of the Department of Corrections issued a report on the prison management of pregnant women and mothers of infant children.  The report “Mothers and Babies” examines the management of pregnant women, those in prison with a child in the community and opportunities for mothers with children in the community to maintain support of parental relationships.  The conclusion is that all three of the women’s prisons have well-resourced and inviting spaces for mothers to care for their children under 24 months old but that the facilities are under used and their potential only partially fulfilled.  The report will be of interest to practitioners acting for women prisoners/defendants. FINAL Inspectorate thematic report - Mothers and Babies.pdf

2023

• His Honour Judge David Harvey has provided commentary on Christopher Luxon's recent speech he gave at the 87th National Party conference.
  Please click on the link to read more:  Luxon on Sentencing | The IT Countrey Justice (wordpress.com) 

• The 2023 budget did not provide increases in legal aid funding, particularly the duty lawyer rate remained frozen at its 2006 rate. A Special General Meeting of CBA will be called to discuss action and to consider legal advise regarding professional obligations while pursuing this campaign.

2022

• In November 2022 a CBA group met with the Minister of Justice to discuss topics including; legal aid, name suppression, judicial resources, name suppression and prisoner issues.

• Following the 2022 CBA meet with the Legal Services Commissioners to raise concerns that the announced budget increases to legal aid were not resulting in substantial increases to legal aid and particularly noted the low rates for duty solicitors and fixed fees. 

• Successful CBA Conference in Auckland 5 - 7 August, this included the new Minister of Justice the Honourable Kiri Allan, the Chief Justice Justice Winkelmann , Justice Kos, President Cooper, Chief High Court Judge Thomas and Chief District Court Judge Taumaunu.  Conference Dinner at the Auckland Museum.

• CBA has appeared in Court of Appeal and Supreme Court as intervenor on issues including murder sentencing and access to mental health services and hopes to appear in further cases in 2023.

• CBA making submissions to parliamentary select committees and participating in the CPIP workstream consultation process and contributing to  High Court Disclosure working group.