Legal aid system broken and may collapse - Chief Justice rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jo Lines-MacKenzie05:00, May 03 2021
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF
Doctors feared Tayla Holmes might never walk again after a near-fatal car crash seven years ago. Now she is an ambassador for Snap Fitness.
Diamonds shimmer on Tayla Holmes’ ring finger as she talks, a symbol of love but also a testament to just how far the 23-year-old has come since a serious car crash turned her life upside down seven years ago. The then 17-year-old was driving to her Rukuhia home on a wet July afternoon in 2014 when her car s brakes locked on Airport Rd and she aquaplaned head-on into an oncoming vehicle. While that vehicle’s driver, Glenn Mackenzie, was left fairly unscathed, Holmes wasn’t so lucky.
There has been a large increase in cultural reports provided for court sentencing. (File photo)
The number of cultural reports and their cost to taxpayers has sky-rocketed, with mixed views on whether they are a good use of more than $3 million that could have been spent on rehabilitation rather than report writing. Figures provided under the Official Information Act show the number of cultural reports invoiced to the Ministry of Justice shot up from 346 in 2019 to 1557 in 2020. The cost to the ministry rose from $639,311 in 2019 to $3,299,373 last year. A cultural report, which can be used by any offender, is an extra way of outlining the offender s background and how they may have come to offend.
MIL-OSI New Zealand: District Court Judges appointed to ease post lockdown caseload foreignaffairs.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from foreignaffairs.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Source: New Zealand Government
Five additional District Court Judges have been appointed to help deal with the impact of the COVID 19 lock down period on the Court system.
The District Court is under significant caseload pressure and these additional appointments will increase capacity in the key locations of Auckland, Manukau, Whangarei and Christchurch.
The appointments, announced by Attorney-General David Parker today, are the first of a number of new District Court Judge appointments. A further 10 will begin work early in the New Year replacing Judges who have reached retirement age. In total 15 new Judges will take up appointment between February and April 2021.