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Criminal Procedure Act 2011

Commencement of proceedings and preliminary steps - Filing a charging document

21: Court may amend or divide alternative or representative charge

You could also call this:

"The court can change or split charges to make things fair"

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

The court can change a charge or split it into more charges if you or another party asks, or if the court thinks it is fair. You can ask the court to change a charge that says two or more things, or a charge that represents more than one thing, into two or more separate charges. The court can also combine two or more charges into one representative charge.

The court can do this even if it is already allowed to do something similar under section 133. This means the court has the power to make these changes to help make things fair. You should know that the court's decision will depend on what is fair in your case.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3360063.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal help
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20: Charge may be representative, or

"A 'representative charge' means one charge can cover many similar offences that happened over time."

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22: Certain charges to disclose range of penalties and previous convictions, or

"Charges must tell you the possible penalties and if you've been in trouble for something similar before"

Part 2Commencement of proceedings and preliminary steps
Filing a charging document

21Court may amend or divide alternative or representative charge

  1. The court may on the application of any party or on its own motion, in the interests of justice,—

  2. order that any charge worded in the alternative, or that is representative, be amended, or divided into 2 or more charges; or
    1. order that 2 or more charges be amalgamated into a representative charge.

      1. This section does not limit section 133.