Recent revelations as to the non-transparent and, frankly, farcical nature in which complaints against judges are dealt with by the only oversight body for judicial abuses are finally being exposed.  Last week, the Office of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner anonymised and then effectively dismissed five complaints against two heads of bench – Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu Principal Family Court Judge JJ Moran in a rare case that made media headlines.  The judges stood accused of attempting to coerce a judge in a child care case to soft-pedal questions to Oranga Tamari ..read more

Minister Christopher Finlayson QC shortland chambers Former National Party List MP Chris Finalyson is cashing in on political favours he dispensed while in public office. Though never successful in his attempts at elected office, Mr Finlayson was nonetheless able to become Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations as well as Attorney-General between 2008 and 2017. The power of each position is immense. Evolving evidence now suggests his consequent personal enrichment from the posts is likely unprecedented since he left Parliament in 2019 – and almost certainly set to increase. The signs w ..read more

High Court Justice Jillian Mallon last week ordered New Zealand’s longest serving prisoner Alfred Vincent released.  Mr Vincent has been in prison more than 52 years and is currently held in a segregated wing at Rimutaka Prison. The 35-page judgment gives the Crown three months to find suitable housing for the 83 year-old Vincent who suffers from dementia and other ailments and has no known surviving family.  The release is in response to a combined Habeas Corpus and judicial review application, and an extensive 45-page submission. Vincent was sentenced to preventive detention on se ..read more

HIGH COURT JUDGMENT Habeas Corpus Covid 19 New Zealand A v Ardern 568 23.04.20 Link to relevant court submissions and article – New Zealand’s Plan to Eliminate Covid-19 Prompts Habeas Corpus Challenge The post Habeas Corpus Judgment Out in New Zealand Covid-19 National Emergency Lockdown Challenge appeared first on Kiwisfirst ..read more

New Zealand takes pride in decisive action. The Covid-19 pandemic provides the latest in case studies, but is not unique. After the Christchurch mosque mass murders last year, the world media marveled at how rapidly NZ passed legislation banning semi-automatic weapons.  Less reported; debate to consider competing views was vilified by the NZ press as callous.  Non-Muslim women officials, including the NZ Prime Minister, wore the hijab. The national press took the initiative and also banned as one to agree what they would not report in relation to the shooting and upcoming tria ..read more

Court record access is a thorny and historical problem in New Zealand, but brace for what lies ahead.  The inability of the government to keep bloggers from publishing unfavourable court information despite longstanding constraints on court records and the national press has resulted in NZ judges spending more administrative time figuring out ways to prevent transparency.  Add increasing layers of competing legislation and judicial rulings on the issue. As is often the case, the lack of information is seldom identified as censorship where censorship is the cause.  In New Zeala ..read more

Another eye-opening trial, subject to suppression orders, played out last week in the Auckland High Court which should eventually affirm lawful guidelines as to how police conduct search warrants on lawyers’ offices. The five day civil trial in A v Police had a barrister suing police on several grounds, including unlawful detainment and illegal search of an Auckland firm of solicitors and barristers chambers sharing downtown offices.  Police represented, when obtaining the District Court search warrant in July 2016, they would have the solicitor targeted in their investigation present fo ..read more

New Zealand Justices Ellen and Simon France Ellen Dolour France is a Supreme Court of New Zealand Justice and her husband Simon is a High Court Justice.  Together they have received over $12.6 Million in judicial salaries since their appointments, $220,000 in expense allowances and an additional $4.74 Million Crown contribution to their retirement accounts.  They are among New Zealand’s richest couples on retirement assets alone, having amassed an estimated $8.18 Million retirement fund from 2003, after the average Kiwisaver annual return of 6.69% since 2007 is applied. The financial ..read more

Chief High Court Justice Geoffrey Venning scrapped another page of New Zealand’s unwritten Constitution in a recent ex-parte ruling which imposed new limits on court access based upon the judge’s solitary musings.  But the greater story may be Attorney-General David Parker’s post-determination submission in July asserting Venning had “correctly decided” new constitutional law despite the judge acting on his own initiative, giving no notice and entertaining no submissions. Justice Geoffrey Venning and A-G David Parker By Judgment Rafiq v Whata [2019] NZHC 1193, Venning J accepted Parliame ..read more

Barrister Colin Henry In the ongoing saga of “If Only The New Zealand Public Had Access To Ministry of Justice Documents”, New Zealand barrister Colin Henry is trying to peel away the shroud that obscures the nation’s justice system and bureaucracy. In the judicial review proceeding, Henry v Minister of Justice and Attorney-General CIV2018 404 1898, Colin Henry, JD is asking a High Court judge to rule the Minister of Justice acted improperly when attempting to fill the Race Relations Commissioner post the middle of last year. Multiple grounds are listed in the claim. Mr Henry is a senior law ..read more