Part 7Complaints and discipline
Complaints
147Powers of investigation
In this section, source of information means—
- a practitioner or former practitioner:
- a person who, or body that, is or was, in relation to a practitioner, a related person or entity:
- an incorporated firm or former incorporated firm:
- an agent or a banker of—
- a practitioner or former practitioner; or
- a person who, or body that, is or was in relation to a practitioner, a related person or entity:
- an incorporated firm or former incorporated firm:
- a practitioner or former practitioner; or
- a person who is not a practitioner but who is an employee or former employee of a practitioner or an incorporated firm.
For the purposes of any inquiry or investigation being conducted under this Act, a Standards Committee or an investigator—
- may, at any time, require a source of information to do any of the following:
- produce for inspection by the Standards Committee or investigator all books, documents, papers, accounts, or records which are in the possession or under the control of the source of information and which are reasonably necessary for the purposes of the inquiry or investigation:
- allow copies of, or extracts from, any such books, documents, papers, accounts, or records to be made:
- furnish, in a form approved by, or acceptable to, the Standards Committee or investigator, any information or particulars that may be required by the Standards Committee or investigator, and any copies of, or extracts from, any such books, documents, papers, accounts, or records:
- give to the Standards Committee or investigator such information in relation to any such books, documents, papers, accounts, or records as may reasonably be required by the Standards Committee or investigator:
- produce to the Standards Committee or investigator any trust account records required under this Act or any regulations or rules to be kept by a practitioner or former practitioner or an incorporated firm or former incorporated firm, whether or not those trust accounts are held by the practitioner or former practitioner or a related person or entity or the incorporated firm or former incorporated firm:
- allow, to such extent as may reasonably be required in relation to the matters under inquiry or investigation, inspection of all records and documents relating to money received by the person to whom the complaint or inquiry relates or any related person or entity or any agent or banker of the related person or entity, whether the money has been paid into a private account or a trust account at a bank or has not been paid to the credit of any such account:
- assist the Standards Committee or investigator by requiring the person or entity who is producing the record or document or trust account records to reproduce, in usable form, any information recorded or stored in the document or record or trust account records:
- produce for inspection by the Standards Committee or investigator all books, documents, papers, accounts, or records which are in the possession or under the control of the source of information and which are reasonably necessary for the purposes of the inquiry or investigation:
- may require that any written information or particulars or any copies or extracts furnished under paragraph (a) are verified by statutory declaration or otherwise as the Standards Committee or investigator may require:
- may employ any person or body to give assistance.
If a person or body is employed under subsection (2)(c) by a Standards Committee or an investigator, the person or body so employed is to be treated as having been employed on behalf of the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers, as the case may require.
Compare
- 1982 No 123 ss 85(3), 101(3)(c)–(e)