STATEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 116, 19 May 1939, Page 9

STATEMENTS.

USE IN COURT.

POLICE PRACTICE.

COMMENT BY JUDGE.

A general statement was marte by Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to-day of his view on the Police Department practice of declining to release, without a Court order in each case, Statements made to a constable immediately after an accident by the parties involved in the accident.

When defendant in a collision case was being cross-examined on a statement he made to the police at the time of the accident, the question of producing the statement arose.

Air. A. K. North, defendant 'counsel, said the statement was in possession of the police. He had subpoenaed the constable to give evidence and produce the plan made at the time and the statements made by the parties, and had been informed that the statements would not be produced except by a special order of the Court.

"Where a witness, whether he is a police officer or someone else, is served with a subpoena to produce documents in Court, he should have the documents in his possession when he comes into Court," declared his Honor.

His Honor went on to say that he did not know if the police authorities had obtained legal advice on the matter, but he knew it had been decided in other countries, also by a high authority in Australia, that a police officer was bound by subpoena to produce documents in Court. When the documents were brought into Court the witness himself might state grounds oa which the production of the documents might be dispensed with. This point could "be decided in Court.

His Honor had the police witness concerned in the case brought into Court, and, on learning that he did not have the statements of plaintiff and defendant, directed the witness to obtain the statements before giving evidence.