Jump to content

Crown prosecutor (New Zealand)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Monkbot (talk | contribs) at 11:08, 28 September 2019 (→‎Structure: Task 16: replaced (2×) / removed (0×) deprecated |dead-url= and |deadurl= with |url-status=;). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In New Zealand, a Crown prosecutor is a lawyer appointed to prosecute indictable offences on behalf of the Crown.

Structure

New Zealand, unlike some other jurisdictions, does not directly employ many lawyers to lay prosecutions. The chief law officer, the Attorney-General, is responsible for prosecuting offenders. However, as a Government minister, the Attorney-General will conventionally not involve himself in individual cases. Instead, the work of prosecution has been delegated to the Crown Law Office, headed by the Solicitor-General, who is a senior civil servant rather than a politician. The Crown Law Office, among other duties, supervises the prosecution of major criminal offences. Much of the prosecution work itself is performed by the Crown Solicitors, 16 senior lawyers in private law firms, each appointed for a particular district, and lawyers working for them.[1]

Crown prosecutors appear for all prosecutions in the High Court and those in the District Court where the defendant has elected trial by jury. In most other cases, the Government is often represented by Police prosecutors, or by prosecutors working for the Government department administering the law involved; for example, cases involving tax are often prosecuted by lawyers working for the Inland Revenue Department.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)