Crimes Act 1961

Matters of justification or excuse - Sentence or process

29: Irregular warrant or process

You could also call this:

"Protection if you follow a faulty police warrant or court order in good faith"

If you act under a warrant or process that has a defect, you are protected from criminal responsibility. This protection applies if you genuinely believed the warrant or process was good in law, and you were not careless or ignoring the facts. You are excused if you did not know the law, as long as you acted in good faith. You might not know if a warrant or process is good in law, but if you think it is, you will be protected. A court will decide if you should have known better when you believed a warrant or process was good in law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM328242.


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28: Sentence or process without jurisdiction, or

"Protection for following orders you believe are lawful"


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30: Arresting the wrong person, or

"Arresting the wrong person by mistake is okay if you had good reasons to think they were the right person"

Part 3Matters of justification or excuse
Sentence or process

29Irregular warrant or process

  1. Every one acting under a warrant or process that is bad in law on account of some defect in substance or in form, apparent on the face of it, shall be protected from criminal responsibility to the same extent and subject to the same provisions as if the warrant or process were good in law if in good faith and without culpable ignorance or negligence he or she believed that the warrant or process was good in law; and ignorance of the law shall in this case be an excuse.

  2. It is a question of law whether the facts of which there is evidence do or do not constitute culpable ignorance or negligence in his or her so believing the warrant or process to be good in law.

Compare
  • 1908 No 32 s 50