This book is only available in PDF format

Published: 19 July, 2010
Pages: 66

Introduction

There are a number of legislative changes that are occurring to address violence in New Zealand.

This webinar deals with these legislative changes that are intended to address our problem of rising family violence. Some of these were effective from 28 October 2009 and others took effect from 1 July 2010.

There are three pieces of legislation that are affected. These are the Domestic Violence Act, (DVA) the Sentencing Act (SA) and the Bail Act (BA). On its third reading, the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill was divided into three parts and received Royal assent on 27 October 2009 in the form of the Domestic Violence Amendment Act 2009 (see Appendix 1), Sentencing Amendment Act (No 2) 2009 and Bail Amendment Act 2009.

Our webinar will consider the likely effects of these changes and in particular the introduction of Police Safety Orders and the ability of the District Court to impose Protection Orders as part of the sentencing process.

With regard to Protection Orders which can be issued as a part of the sentencing process, criminal lawyers will have involvement in what has traditionally been considered the work of those involved in Family Court litigation. Although we are not required to complete the standard documents associated with defending a Protection Order we will need to know the grounds in order to make submissions on point. The ability of the police to issue Police  Safety Orders also requires that criminal lawyers understand the process and the Court’s jurisdiction if a person appears for breaching the Police Safety Order.