New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Mutual assistance in criminal matters act 1992 (macma)

  • 31 May 2013

    DOTCOM v ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2013] NZHC 1269

    Citation
    [2013] NZHC 1269
    Court
    High Court

    The MACMA warrants were invalid nullities because they failed to identify the foreign law and particular offences and authorised seizure of broad categories that inevitably captured irrelevant material; the searches were therefore unlawful and unreasonable under s 21 NZBORA; s 204/s 5 cannot cure these defects or deny relief because a miscarriage of justice occurred; equitable discretionary relief requires onshore review, return of items containing no relevant material, provision of forensic clones to plaintiffs (and limited disclosable clones to US authorities), and restriction on transfer p…

    • Validity of search warrants
    • General warrants and particularity
    • S 21 nzbora unreasonable search and seizure
    • Mutual assistance in criminal matters act 1992 (macma)
    • S 49 macma transfer of seized material
    • S 204 summary proceedings act curative powers

  • 28 Jun 2012

    DOTCOM & ORS V ATTORNEY-GENERAL HC AK CIV-2012-404-1928

    Citation
    openlaw-191fc977_6e04_440d_91e7_3c0acea3ecdb.pdf
    Court
    High Court

    Warrants were general and therefore invalid because they failed to specify the foreign offences and limited scope required by MACMA and authorised seizure of overbroad categories (Appendix A) that would inevitably include irrelevant material; seizure and continued retention of such irrelevant material exceeded statutory authority; shipment of cloned hard drives to the FBI contravened the Solicitor-General's s49(2) direction that items remain in the custody and control of the Commissioner and was unlawful; no consent from plaintiffs to offshore transfer was established; declarations of unlawfu…

    • Search and seizure
    • Mutual assistance in criminal matters act 1992 (macma)
    • Search warrants
    • Imaging/cloning of electronic evidence
    • Interim relief
    • Transfer of evidence across borders