[HS] Criminal Law Over Lunch: Name Suppression in Focus: Ensuring a Fair Trial and Doing Evidence Better
Name suppression orders and social media have created the perfect storm—where anyone publishing a suppressed name can be brought before the court, but actually identifying the responsible party poses significant challenges. Join us to explore critical questions such as when does name suppression apply, and how can we better protect witnesses and complainants? Get the information you need to limit exposure and uncover strategies for safeguarding privacy in this complex landscape. WEB249NZA13C
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD hour
Chair: Paige McElhinney, Director, Forensic Science Consultant, The Forensic Group Ltd
1.30pm to 2.30pm Name Suppression in Focus: Ensuring a Fair Trial and Doing Evidence Better
Explore the balance between proactive name suppression and reactive takedown orders. Examine recent decisions and benefit from a discussion on ciritical issues, including:
- Examining recent High Court and Court of Appeal decisions on name suppression acknowledging that the law is not keeping up with modern day methods of publication, such as publication on a social media platform
- Being the fence at the top of the cliff and thinking ahead rather than the ambulance at the bottom: Name suppression vs take down orders
Presented by Jacinda Younger, Barrister and Solicitor, Square Legal Chambers
Learning Objective:
- Elevate your courtroom skills with updated strategies for cross-examining expert witnesses and utilizing forensic science effectively in cases to improve agility
Presenters
Paige McElhinney
Paige McElhinney has worked in forensic science for the past 18 years. She has worked for both the Crown, at ESR, and the defence, now a forensic science consultant for The Forensic Group Ltd. Her areas of knowledge and expertise include - crime scene examination, body fluid identification, blood stain pattern interpretation, clothing damage, hair comparisons, footwear impression location, recovery and comparison and using DNA results to assist in interpretations. In her time at ESR she was a lead scientist for the Crown for over 720 cases including 25 homicides. Paige was the Doctors for Sexual Abuse Care (DSAC) (now MEDSAC) liaison at ESR and represented ESR at training courses on sexual abuse for medical personnel run by DSAC, as well as at the training of Police Medical Officers. She was also part of the team that developed the most recent medical examination kit and co-authored the chapters on Forensic Specimens and Forensic Science and Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault in The Medical Management of Sexual Assault (Sixth Edition 2006), published by DSAC. Paige's knowledge has been employed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime where she was contracted to develop an Introduction to Forensic Science Course for the Palestinian National Authority, and by the New Zealand Law Commission, working with them on issues relating to expert witnesses and forensic biological data management.
Jacinda Younger
Jacinda has been in practice since 1998, initially in general practice before specialising in criminal law as a barrister in 2001. Her practice began in Whanganui, then adding an office in Palmerston North where she stayed after the legal aid changes a decade ago. She is a PAL4 qualified legal aid provider and regularly appears in jury trial and appellant matters. Her favourite aspect of criminal law is section 106 discharge without convictions, which she has specialised her private practice in for the last 10years, not having one declined in that period. Her most striking case in section 106 is successfully gaining a discharge without conviction for two young offenders facing an aggravated burglary charge in 2019. Jacinda considers her strength as being a strategic thinker and that this probably developed over the last 25 years juggling a law practice, training her dressage stallion from a foal to Grand Prix (Olympic level) dressage (also a NZ first), running a busy horse stud and raising two girls who she also trains in dressage and who are national dressage champions in their own right now. “If you don’t think forward in problem solving, then the house of cards falls down pretty quickly!”