New Zealand Law Society - Criminal Procedure Rule amendments in force on 15 August

Criminal Procedure Rule amendments in force on 15 August

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Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Rules 2012 will come into force on 15 August 2016.

The Criminal Procedure Amendment Rules 2016 insert a new Part 5A, which sets out new procedures for sentencing and replaces the present practice note relating to sentencing.

New rules 5A.1 and 5A.2 require the prosecutor to provide the defendant with a copy of the summary of facts at the time a guilty plea is entered. They set out a process for resolving any dispute about the contents of the summary of facts, and a process where the Crown can seek to amend the summary of facts to add aggravating factors.

New rules 5A.3 to 5A.5 provide for the filing and service of sentencing memoranda by the prosecutor and defendant in sentencing hearings for more serious offences, and describe the matters which prosecution and defence memoranda must each address.

New rule 5A.6 sets out the order of presentation of submissions at a sentencing hearing and provides that the summary of facts is taken as read.

New rules 5A.7 and 5A.8 deal with the procedures to be adopted where a defendants wants assistance provided to the authorities to be taken into account, and the process where confidential information to be taken into account is not known by the defendant's lawyer.

A number of other changes to the principal Rules are also made.

Rule 2.8(5) is amended to clarify that process servers can be granted a general approval to serve documents.

Rule 4.8(1)(d) is amended to require a summary of facts to be included with case management memoranda.

A new Rule 4.14 is inserted to require a prosecutor to give the court notice of certain details relating to a protocol offence.

Subpart 6 of Part 4, which deals with Crown notices under the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, is amended to include a note drawing attention to the need to read the subpart together with the requirements set out in the Crown Prosecution Regulations 2013.

Rule 5.5 is amended to alter the period during which a prosecutor must file the formal statements required by section 85 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 from 25 working days to 15 working days before the trial callover date.

Rule 8.3 is amended to clarify where a notice of appeal must be filed.