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Substance Addiction (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 2017

Assessment and treatment of persons suffering from severe substance addiction - Enforcement - Matters of justification or excuse

115: Matters of justification or excuse

You could also call this:

"You're protected if you do something because you believed official documents were correct and you acted honestly."

Illustration for Substance Addiction (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 2017

If you do something because you believe a notice, certificate, or order is correct, you are protected from getting in trouble. You must have acted in good faith, meaning you honestly thought the notice, certificate, or order was real. You also need to have believed the person who gave the notice or made the order had the authority to do so.

If the notice, certificate, or order is defective, you are still protected if you believed it was correct without being careless or ignoring the facts. Not knowing the law can be an excuse in this situation.

The documents that can protect you include a notice given under section 19(2)(c) or 30(3)(a), a compulsory treatment certificate given under section 23, or a compulsory treatment order.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6609277.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Mental healthCrime and justice > Criminal law
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Part 2Assessment and treatment of persons suffering from severe substance addiction
Enforcement: Matters of justification or excuse

115Matters of justification or excuse

  1. A person who relies on a notice, a certificate, or an order described in subsection (4) is protected from criminal responsibility if he or she acts in good faith under the belief that,—

  2. in the case of a notice or certificate, the notice or certificate was properly given by a person having authority to give it:
    1. in the case of an order, the order was properly made by a court having jurisdiction to make it.

      1. The protection given by subsection (1) applies even if the notice, certificate, or order is defective as long as the person who relied on the notice, certificate, or order believed, in good faith and without culpable ignorance or negligence, that the notice, certificate, or order was good in law; and in this case ignorance of the law is an excuse.

      2. For the purposes of subsection (2), it is a question of law whether in the circumstances a person’s belief is based on culpable ignorance or negligence.

      3. The documents referred to in subsections (1) and (2) are—

      4. a notice purportedly given under section 19(2)(c) or 30(3)(a):
        1. a compulsory treatment certificate purportedly given under section 23:
          1. an order purporting to be a compulsory treatment order.

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