Disclosure to Court of Defendants’ Previous Convictions, Similar Offending, and Bad Character

The Press and Media briefing on the above report was conducted on Thursday 12 June in the offices of the Law Commission, Featherston Street, Wellington, by Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Val Sim.

The Commission's latest report reviewing the law as it relates to the admissibility of previous convictions, similar offending and bad behaviour in New Zealand, has been tabled in Parliament. The central piece of legislation considered in the Report is the Evidence Act 2006.  The Commission’s report makes no recommendation to amend the law at this point but proposes that it should continue to monitor the operation and impact of the Act in this area, and report back to government by 28 February 2010.

Click here to view a copy of the full report: http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/ProjectReport.aspx?ProjectID=136

A recording of the briefing may be watched by clicking on the following link http://www.R2.co.nz/20080612/lawcom.asx

The webcast is best viewed in Windows Media Player, Real Player. or Mplayer under Linux or Os-X. Totem and VideoLan also work well.