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Criminal Procedure Act 2011

Procedure before trial - Provisions applying only to jury trial procedure - Procedure for taking oral evidence

99: Oral evidence must be recorded

You could also call this:

"When you tell something in court, it gets written down or recorded so it's accurate."

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

When you give oral evidence, it must be recorded. This record must be checked to make sure it is correct. If you cannot read and your evidence is written down, someone will read it back to you. You will then say if it is correct or not, and the person who read it to you will write a statement saying they read it to you and you seemed to understand it.

If a judge or a Registrar says a record of oral evidence is authentic, you must accept that it is. This is because judges and Registrars follow special rules when they check these records. You can find more information about how this law has changed over time by looking at the law from 1957.

The law says that judges must take notice of the authentication of any record of oral evidence given by a judge or Registrar. This means that if a judge or Registrar says a record is authentic, it is accepted as true. You can rely on this authentication when you are giving or listening to oral evidence.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2568024.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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98: Application of subpart 5 of Part 3 of Evidence Act 2006, or

"Following special rules for giving evidence in court"

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100: Proceeding may be continued despite witness's failure to appear or give evidence, or

"The court case can still happen even if a witness doesn't show up or give evidence."

Part 3Procedure before trial
Provisions applying only to jury trial procedure: Procedure for taking oral evidence

99Oral evidence must be recorded

  1. Oral evidence must be recorded and that record must be authenticated.

  2. If the oral evidence is given by a person who cannot read and is recorded in writing,—

  3. the record of the evidence must be read to that person before the person authenticates it; and
    1. the reader must attach to the record an authenticated statement by that reader to the effect that the record was read to the person and that the person to whom it was read appeared to understand its contents.

      1. Judicial notice must be taken of the authentication of any examining judicial officer or Registrar given in a manner prescribed by rules of court to any record of oral evidence taken under this section.

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