Criminal Bar Association And Bazley Report

Coal Face Lawyers Disrespected

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The Criminal Bar Association has lashed out at the Bazley report

Politicians, law reformers and law report writers such as Dame Margaret Bazley should respect criminal defence lawyers who did relentless work at the coal face, Auckland barrister Charles Cato told the annual general meeting of the Criminal Bar Association of New Zealand.

Mr Cato said that he was disturbed by the increasing disdain in which criminal defence lawyers were held in New Zealand by some members of the public.

“The public perception now is troubling. I believe this attitude has been encouraged by politicians, as the system which has had too little money spent on it has creaked under the weight of a larger and more diverse population, and failed economic models and probably the dislocation of the family unit as we once knew it.

“One sees this commonly among our clients and in probation reports. I believe because we have not in recent years had practising criminal lawyers in influential positions in government that we have gone backwards.

“People like Martin Findlay and Doug Graham who had practised law and in the courts were more receptive to us than those who have not had that experience.”

Mr Cato said that criminal lawyers had received little support over the years from law societies.
“We are the poor end of town.”

He said that life at the coal face was a difficult existence.

“We did not create this mess. We struggle with the human wreckage and carnage of government policies which have created, in some areas of low
employment and poor community facilities, a kind of Dickensian poverty among sectors of New Zealand society,” he said.

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