YOUTH’S ARREST Change Sought In Summons System

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 26

YOUTH’S ARREST Change Sought In Summons System

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 2.

As the result of a youth being arrested when he failed to appear in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on summons, the Auckland District Law Society seeks an urgent change in the summons procedure.

A warrant issued by an Auckland Magistrate for the arrest of a carpenter’s apprentice, who failed to appear on a charge of driving in a manner which might have been dangerous after pleading guilty bv letter-has highlighted the summons procedure, according to an article in the Auckland society s August newsletter.

After the youth’s arrest, his mother was in tears, the article says. The youth, according to his solicitor, gained the impression of the ’aw as “blind, savasre, and madly unjust.”

The Auckland District Law Society has taken the matter up with the New Zealand Law Society, and hopes that the present summons procedure will be altered without delay.

“In the particular instance reported to the society by an Auckland city practitioner, the defendant, whose previous history consisted of two convictions for speeding, was advised by a friendly but inexperienced traffic officer to write in with his plea of guilty, and the circumstances,” the newsletter says. The youth had gone to the trouble of having his sister deliver the letter to the court. The youth’s solicitor suggested that a sticker saying “non-appearance on this sum mons will result ui your arrest” be attached to summonses for offences carrying imprisonment

The newsletter says the solicitor's suggestion has been supported by the criminal law and Magistrate’s Courts sub-committees of the Auckland society. ’ Recommendations were go-

ing to the New Zealand Law Society that the suggested procedure, or a similar one, be adopted. "One proposal for reform is that where attendance is not required, the defendant should receive instead of a summons a ‘notice of hearing’ informing him that the matter may be decided in his absence it ne does not appear. “The form of summons where attendance is required should make it clear that non-attendance may lead to arrest,” the newsletter says. It adds that the matter raises the question of whether the civil summons should appear to require compulsory attendance, or whether it should make it clear that it is up to the defendant if he appears in court or not