Criminal Procedure Simplification
Ministry of Justice - District Court - Criminal Procedure Simplification Project
Criminal Procedure (Simplification) Project Testing in Manukau and Tauranga District Courts
The Criminal Procedure (Simplification) Project is designed to review, and implement improvements to criminal procedure in the summary and indictable jurisdictions. It is a joint project between the Ministry of Justice and the Law Commission.
Testing of the processes began in both Manukau and Tauranga District Courts on 1 July 2008. A comprehensive review of the testing was undertaken after six months, and feedback was sought from all stakeholders including counsel. Based on this feedback and data, refinements have been made to the proposed case management processes.
From 8 March 2010, testing of Simplification processes will resume at Tauranga District Court, and the revised processes for summary criminal matters will be implemented. These changes will also be implemented into the current testing at Manukau District Court; this will take place on 22 March. Defense counsel are requested to participate in this testing. To support the test, new proceedings steps have been introduced by the Legal Services Agency.
