LAW REPORTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 11

LAW REPORTING

A CORPORATE BODY

RECONSTITUTION OF COUNCIL

Provision for the reconstitution of the New Zealand Council of Law Reporting as a corporate body is made in the New Zealand Council of Law Reporting Bill, which was. introduced and read a first time in the House of Representatives today.

On the passing of the Act the existing council will be replaced by a council consisting of the } . AttorneyGeneral, who will act as chairman, the Solicitor-General, the president of the New Zealand Law Society, and five members appointed by the council of the New Zealand Law Society.- One of the last-named members will retire in March, 1940, two the following year, and two in 1942. *

The principal function of the council shall be to prepare and sell, or arrange for the preparation and sell- j ing, of reports of judicial decisions, orj any other legal works. On the passing of the Act no person or firm other than the council may publish a new series of decisions of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, except with the consent of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, which may be given only on the ground that -the Council of Law Reporting has failed to publish, or to arrange for the publication within a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost to purchasers, of adequate reports of the decisions of these Courts. The council is empowered to make grants to the New Zealand Law Society and to district law societies.

The provisions of the Bill were outlined by the Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason), who said'that it was the desire of the legal profession that the measure should be introduced. There had been lengthy negotiations between the Council of Law Reporting and representatives of th<* New Zealand Law Society, and more than one conference had been held The Bill met the desires of all concerned. At present the council was not incorporated, and there was some obscurity as to what exactly might be its obligations in respect of such funds as it had.

The Rt. Hon. G..W. Forbes. (National, Hurunui): Has it anything to do with misreporting?

The Minister: No. Law reporting is good reporting.

The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (National, Kaipara): Does it cover the question of indemnifying the public against some of the black sheep of the profession?

The Minister: That is another chapter. . ■ • •