2024
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
2022
01 May 2021