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Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004

Complaints about Judges

14: Commissioner must acknowledge complaint and deal with it promptly

You could also call this:

"The Commissioner must reply to your complaint and sort it out quickly."

Illustration for Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004

When you make a complaint about a Judge, the Commissioner gets it. The Commissioner sends you a written acknowledgement straight away. They also send a written notification to the Judge. The Commissioner might send a copy of your complaint to the Judge. The Judge can ask for a copy of the complaint and get it. The Commissioner deals with your complaint as soon as they can. In some cases, the Commissioner might wait before telling the Judge about the complaint. This happens if it could affect a court case or if a court is already dealing with the matter. The Commissioner talks to the relevant Head of Bench before making a decision to wait.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM293595.

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Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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"Making a complaint about a Judge: what you need to do"

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"The Commissioner checks a complaint to see if it's valid and decides what to do next."

14Commissioner must acknowledge complaint and deal with it promptly

  1. Without delay after receiving a complaint, the Commissioner must—

  2. send a written acknowledgement to the complainant (if any); and
    1. send to the Judge who is the subject of the complaint a written notification of the complaint.

      1. The Commissioner may send a copy of the complaint to the Judge.

      2. The Judge is entitled to request and receive a copy of the complaint.

      3. The Commissioner must deal with a complaint as soon as practicable after receiving it.

      4. Subsections (1), (2), and (4) are subject to subsections (6) and (7).

      5. If the Commissioner is satisfied, following consultation with the relevant Head of Bench, that notifying the Judge of the complaint under subsection (1) could prejudice any court proceedings, the Commissioner may defer that step.

      6. If the Commissioner is satisfied, following consultation with the relevant Head of Bench, that the matter being or to be dealt with by the Commissioner is being dealt with by a court or that for any other reason the Commissioner should defer dealing with the complaint, the Commissioner may defer dealing with it.