Lawyers Complain

NZ Truth, Issue 1062, 1 April 1926, Page 6

Lawyers Complain

If public confidence is to be inspired m administration of the law. then legal procedure should be untainted with suspicion. THERE is good ground for stating * < that matters at the Magistrate's Court at Auckland are not m this desirable state.' .■■..■• ! ' ■ Mr. Hall-Skelton,. at the annual meeting of the Auckland Law Society, recommended that conditions generally at the Magistrate's Court should be gone into thoroughly by the -council of 1 the, society. .-■-.■■. . . . Apart from the fact that there were grounds for asserting that magistrates were being approached m an unorthodox day, . the ordinary methods of pleading were not allowed by some of, the magistrates. ' • • In a case only last week a social worker was called upon by a magistrate and asked what she knew of a certain ,case. ■ The reply, was that . what had been said about the complainant was all lies and that the defendant- (in this case the husband of complainant) was the blameworthy party. • The statement was made from the floor of the Court and not on oath as evidence. In addition, when counsel for the husband asked the speaker how she gained/ her information she told him — and not altogether politely— that it didn't matter to him. She knew.