New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Toxicology

  • 28 Nov 2019

    BALLANTYNE v R [2019] NZCA 596

    Citation
    [2019] NZCA 596
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    Extension of time to appeal granted but appeal dismissed because the alleged non-disclosures and forensic lacunae did not demonstrate a miscarriage of justice: missing ESR pages were either disclosed elsewhere or not material; many samples were not tested for legitimate forensic reasons and/or would not have been probative (mitochondrial testing unavailable domestically, samples saturated with blood, residential hair deposition confounds attribution); contested forensic points (blood congealment, boot-heel stain, unidentified prints, absence of DNA on weapons or in wound) were either explored…

  • 12 Feb 2019

    R v WOODS [2019] NZHC 122

    Citation
    [2019] NZHC 122
    Court
    High Court

    Given the revised expert evidence and toxicology showing potentially fatal alcohol and methadone levels, and the Crown pathologist's view that any neck compression was not severe or prolonged enough to be a substantial and operative cause of death, a properly directed jury could not reasonably be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant's actions caused the death; therefore the charge must be dismissed under s 147.

  • 29 May 2013

    Steel v Accident Compensation Corporation

    Citation
    [2013] NZACC 156
    Court
    District Court

    The appeal was dismissed because the medical and expert toxicology evidence failed to establish a causal link between workplace exposure to Solutrace and the claimant's urticarial vasculitis; temporal association alone was insufficient and the statutory s30 threshold, including a significantly greater risk for employed persons, was not met.