Legal question (Attn lawyers, cops, PIs, etc)

[Lias]

Where someone has been convicted of a crime, how do you go about getting proof of that conviction without them consenting to a criminal record request it and submitting it to the MoJ?

I can find the transcript of the persons appeal on the court of appeals website (and in brookers), but nothing about the orignial judgement/sentencing that lead to the appeal.

I understand I can purchase judgements from brookers/lexisnexis, but I need the details of the case (exact date, case number etc) to do so. How do I obtain said information? All I have is name of offender, date of the crime and date of the appeals decision. Is there either an online or paper index of all convictions that one can search through to find the case info?

I have access to brookers/lexisnexis via a friend, and might be able to get into a uni law library through another friend if that helps.

PS: It's a lot harder to get the information you need to put someone in a sex offenders database than I anticipated lol

[Mully]

Dunno. But I'd be curious to find out too...

Just for shits and giggles, really.

[peasea]

Yeah, ditto. Surely if someone is convicted of a crime then it's got to be on some sort of public record.

Somewhere....

[Jonno.]

All I know is that when you request your criminal convictions from the ministry of justice there's a big box saying "it's an offence to request without consent".

[peasea]

All I know is that when you request your criminal convictions from the ministry of justice there's a big box saying "it's an offence to request without consent".

Where?

http://www.justice.govt.nz/services/...individual.pdf

[Insanity_rules]

Where someone has been convicted of a crime, how do you go about getting proof of that conviction without them consenting to a criminal record request it and submitting it to the MoJ?

I can find the transcript of the persons appeal on the court of appeals website (and in brookers), but nothing about the orignial judgement/sentencing that lead to the appeal.

I understand I can purchase judgements from brookers/lexisnexis, but I need the details of the case (exact date, case number etc) to do so. How do I obtain said information? All I have is name of offender, date of the crime and date of the appeals decision. Is there either an online or paper index of all convictions that one can search through to find the case info?

I have access to brookers/lexisnexis via a friend, and might be able to get into a uni law library through another friend if that helps.

PS: It's a lot harder to get the information you need to put someone in a sex offenders database than I anticipated lol

If the conviction information is to be used in an evidentiary way it'll be very difficult. Be very careful how you obtain this info and use it, as the person in question could turn it around and have you done for a raft of offences if your T's aren't crossed. Even if this person is a complete waste of oxygen and completely deserves it!

[Mully]

If the conviction information is to be used in an evidentiary way it'll be very difficult. Be very careful how you obtain this info and use it, as the person in question could turn it around and have you done for a raft of offences if your T's aren't crossed. Even if this person is a complete waste of oxygen and completely deserves it!

Of course. You can't be mean to the poor little criminals....

[Insanity_rules]

Of course. You can't be mean to the poor little criminals....

Legal systems rules not mine. I know of a guy who assaulted his land lady (broke her hand). Successfully petitioned to have his criminal history made inadmissable and got off because his Lawyer created enough reasonable doubt regarding the circumstances.

Criminals have it way to easy in this country.

[candor]

It seems to be getting treated as private aside from what's in historic news reports, but I think that misinterprets the privacy act. I phoned a court clerk in a court I knew sentenced an offender for a known offence around a general time (I knew the month) and requested the conviction record. She sent me a one page entry of the conviction no worries but whether this was kosher I dunno.
Its how I found out the offender was sentenced to driving school by a JP for a big prior 3 car write off impaired crash and kept his license just 40 days before killing my Mum. So you see why the courts want such records kept secret (:

You can also ask the local paper court reporter or any other non busy cooperative reporter to search its database for its report just using the offenders name, or if that's suppressed for any other offense details that would give a hit.
Oddly the paper reported my Mums killers full record, but when I OIA'ed Police for the full investigation file they blacked out his full record (I can only see the header) to protect the killers privacy. Not impressed by that at all! Next they'll be barring the public from court rooms for criminals privacy needs. A friendly policeman can sometimes be very helpful with such matters.

Is there any proof paedo data bases keep kids safe? They could make them unsafer by suggesting a safe neighbourhood or inner circle and less of a vigilance need just because noones been caught there.

[SS90]

All I know is that when you request your criminal convictions from the ministry of justice there's a big box saying "it's an offence to request without consent".

Where does it say that?

Mine was a piece off piss to get.

I needed one last month for my Austrian Visa extension, and since I was in England at the time, I took a photo of my passport, emailed to my co-worker, he faxed that (and the application form) to NZ, and 3 days later, my (empty) criminal record was emailed to him.

No drama what so ever.

[SS90]

Legal systems rules not mine. I know of a guy who assaulted his land lady (broke her hand). Successfully petitioned to have his criminal history made inadmissable and got off because his Lawyer created enough reasonable doubt regarding the circumstances.

Criminals have it way to easy in this country.

Hmm, I am always very wary of rushing to judgment on such claims. When I was a young teen, I knew a young girl who accused her Father of sexual abuse (based on a Vaginal measurement from a "health camp", she was deemed to be "abused", a few months of "councelling", and it was deemed that her Father was guilty, family splits up (I think he did time, but I am not sure), the father always was a little "eccentric", so the whole community judged him, 5 years later, she came forward with the truth (she had never been abused, this "test" was debunked as utter shit), and even though she went to the papers (who printed a story telling the truth), people always remember him as the "daughter fiddler" (not everyone reads the papers).

And I know another guy with a similar story.

Some criminal get away with alot, and some innocent people get fisted in the arse by the system.

[Insanity_rules]

Hmm, I am always very wary of rushing to judgment on such claims. When I was a young teen, I knew a young girl who accused her Father of sexual abuse (based on a Vaginal measurement from a "health camp", she was deemed to be "abused", a few months of "councelling", and it was deemed that her Father was guilty, family splits up (I think he did time, but I am not sure), the father always was a little "eccentric", so the whole community judged him, 5 years later, she came forward with the truth (she had never been abused, this "test" was debunked as utter shit), and even though she went to the papers (who printed a story telling the truth), people always remember him as the "daughter fiddler" (not everyone reads the papers).

And I know another guy with a similar story.

Some criminal get away with alot, and some innocent people get fisted in the arse by the system.

Understood and I agree with you. Its way too easy to cry wolf. The story I was relating though I actually witnessed and he should have gone down for assault big time no matter what the back ground may have been.

[Lias]

I managed to isolate the dates by talking to the chief archivist of the Waikato times, who sent me the emails of the 4 news articles that appeared over the course of a year as he went through the courts. I then took those article dates, accessed the releveant microfiche archives at the library, and got scans and printouts of the original articles.

Should be enough proof to get him listed as a sex offender online.