Stories by Anneke Smith

A lawyer representing former Auckland school teacher Benjamin Swann, who is accused of abusing six teenage boys, says his client is innocent.

The government has pulled $50 million from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund to ease backlog in the justice system.

Defence lawyers are worried the already backlogged district courts will be overwhelmed if police pursue all Covid-19 prosecutions.

Zachary Yarwood, 23, died in hospital after a night-time dive at the Devonport Naval Base in March last year.

A woman charged in relation to the death of Constable Matthew Hunt can now be named.

The pair are charged in relation to the death of Constable Matthew Hunt in West Auckland last month.

A settlement payout over defamatory claims Mike Hosking made on air about John Tamihere will help fund the Māori Party's election campaign.

Significant changes are afoot in the country's largest and busiest court as a special group finalises its recommendations to make the justice system more efficient.

A judge has questioned the legality of the government's ban on managed isolation exemptions after a man was denied the chance to farewell his dying father.

A trial date for former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross and three businessman has been set.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's not her place to decide if Sir John Key should apologise over false claims brides were leaving New Zealand for ISIS in 2015.

A stoush over whether a report into the financial management of America's Cup should be publicised has been heard in the High Court.

Defendants awating trial by jury are facing months of delays as courts grapple with backlogs caused by Covid-19.

The chair of an independent review into the Family Court says today's reforms are only the start of what needs to change in the family justice system.

It will be difficult to leverage any real economic gains from a virtual APEC, Auckland's Business Chamber says.

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed near Wanaka - killing a man - has defended his training and abilities in a coronial inquest.

The man at the centre of the Young Labour summer camp scandal will be unfairly vilified as a sexual predator if publicly identified, his lawyer has argued.

A woman charged with being an accessory to the alleged murder of Constable Matthew Hunt has appeared in court.

A Chilean national has admitted his role in an international drug syndicate that imported over a tonne of illegal drugs.

Ukraine's secret service is claiming to have stopped a neo-Nazi cell during its investigation into the distribution of the Christchurch terrorist's so-called manifesto.

The mother of a young man who died in an Auckland police cell six years ago says it has been a long wait for answers.

A British national has been jailed for more than nine years for his role in an international drug syndicate that imported nearly 200kg of methamphetamine into New Zealand.

A coronial inquest into the death of a young man in an Auckland police cell more than six years ago is under way again.

One of four men charged over the death of a man found buried in a shallow grave near Tongariro has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder.

A man accused of murdering a three-month-old baby during the alert level 4 lockdown has pleaded not guilty.