Wrongful birth in New Zealand

Wrongful birth cases have been a feature of the common law. In this article the author examines wrongful birth cases against the background of the New Zealand accident compensation scheme. Initially cases were accepted under the scheme, but after major changes to the legislation in 1992, wrongful birth cases were declined cover. The author argues that this should continue to be the case, and that, as a result, New Zealand courts will have to make the same policy decisions in this area as those made by other Commonwealth courts.     

Mental health services in New Zealand

The development and reorganization of mental health services in New Zealand is underpinned by a national strategy, with increased funding from the government, and is occurring on a background of radical change in health service policy and delivery. The major challenge will be to sustain the developments to date, and increase the quality and quantity of services in a climate of ongoing change. A more integrated form of service delivery and funding would potentially enhance the development of population-based mental health services, which will allow the alignment of targeting specialty service to the 3% of the population with the highest need, with a more comprehensive approach to overall mental health service through the primary sector.     

Policing serious fraud in New Zealand

The discovery of a serious fraud problem in New Zealand is very recent. Prior to the 1980s, there had been only three prosecutions for serious fraud in the history of the country, and penalties for those convicted were small. But a corporate boom in the 1980s, followed by the sharemarket crash of 1987, revealed extensive serious fraud. Initial attempts to combat the problem through the Commercial Affairs division of the Department of Justice failed. But in 1990 a Serious Fraud Office was established, with powers greater than those ever given before to a New Zealand law-enforcement agency. Three years later, the SFO had been notified of possible frauds totalling $ 2.5 billion. This represents many times what is reported stolen in all other property crime, but the SFO budget is only 1% of that devoted to ordinary policing. Since 1990, only one prosecution out of the seventeen completed has failed. Prison sentences of up to seven years and averaging almost four years, have been awarded. As the SFO nears the end of its third year, and its net gradually widens, its influence on illegal business activity continues to grow.Adapted from a paper presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, New Orleans, 4–7 November 1992.     

Medico-legal issues and driver licensing

Legal liability of doctors as a result of decisions regarding the fitness to drive of their patients, and the issue of mandatory reporting have emerged as major concerns following several recent cases in Australia. Driver Licensing Authorities rely on medical advice from the professions in order to exercise their statutory responsibility to ensure the competency and safety of their licence holders. The question of whether doctors must disclose medical information regarding potentially dangerous drivers is a controversial one as is the issue of whether doctors can be held legally responsible for decisions based on their advice. This column discusses the current situation in Australia in the light of these concerns and the implications for Licensing Authorities if information is not readily available to them.     

New Zealand: Public Registers Report

In September 2007, the Commonwealth Law Bulletin (Vol. 33, No. 3), published an article on the New Zealand Law Commission’s Issues Paper on Public Registers (IP 3, 2007), including the four options for reform that the Commission was putting forward for consideration by interested persons.

The Law Commission’s Public Registers Report ¹ 1 New Zealand Law Commission’s Public Registers Report, NZLC R 101 2008. (the Report) has now been published, completing stage 2 of the Law Commission’s four stage Privacy Review.

It is available on the Law Commission’s website at http://www.lawcom.govt.nz.     

Walls of secrecy and silence

Research Summary Most analysts of the causes of the contemporary credit crunch have concluded that the supervising agencies failed in their duties. The same is true for studies of several major fraud scandals, including the Madoff affair and the Dutch construction fraud. The remedy seems immediately obvious: more and better regulation and supervision. However, this line of reasoning seems somewhat simplistic by ignoring the question of how illegal activities can remain hidden for many years from supervising agencies, victims, and bystanders. This research article argues that the problem also lies in the successful concealment of illegal activities by the perpetrators and in the presence of silence in their social environment. Policy Implications The cases analyzed in this article suggest that financial misconduct also could be controlled by breaking the conspiracies of silence. The strengthening of supervision is unlikely to be effective without simultaneous efforts to encourage people to speak out and to give them incentives to want to know and to tell the truth.