Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003

Procedural provisions - Persons entitled to be heard

128: Power of court to call witnesses

You could also call this:

"The court can ask someone to be a witness to help make a fair decision in a case about someone with an intellectual disability."

Illustration for Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003

When you are in court for a case about someone with an intellectual disability, the court can call someone to be a witness. The court can choose to call a witness if they think the person's evidence will help the court make a decision. You can think of a witness as someone who gives evidence in court to help the court understand what happened.

If the court calls a witness, that person has the right to refuse to answer some questions, just like they would if they were called by one of the parties involved in the case. The court can ask the witness questions, and the parties involved in the case can also ask the witness questions. This is to make sure the court gets all the information it needs to make a fair decision.

Some rules from the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, like sections 159 and 161 to 165, apply to witnesses called by the court. These rules help make sure the witness is treated fairly and that the court gets the information it needs.

If the court calls a witness, the government pays for the witness's expenses, like travel costs, according to a set scale of expenses. This is so the witness does not have to pay for these costs themselves.

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This page was last updated on 7 August 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM225976.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpCrime and justice > Criminal lawHealth and wellbeing > Mental healthRights and equality > Anti-discrimination

127: Court not bound by rules of evidence, or

"The court can consider any information it thinks is important, even if it's not normally allowed."

129: Proceedings not open to public, or

"Some court hearings are private, only certain people can attend"

Part 9Procedural provisions
Persons entitled to be heard

128Power of court to call witnesses

In a proceeding on an application under this Act, the court may, on its own initiative, call as a witness any person whose evidence may in its opinion be of assistance to the court.
A witness called by the court under this section has the same privilege to refuse to answer any question that the witness would have had, if called by a party to the proceeding.
A witness called by the court under this section may be examined and re-examined by the court, and may be cross-examined by or on behalf of any party to the proceeding.
Sections 159 and 161 to 165 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, so far as they are applicable and with all necessary modifications, apply with respect to a person called as a witness by the court under this section as if that person had been called by a party to the proceeding.
The expenses of a witness called by the court under this section must be met in the first instance, in accordance with the prescribed scale of witnesses' expenses, out of public money appropriated by Parliament for the purpose.

Compare

1992 No 46 s 23

Notes

Section 128(4): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).