PROSECUTION OF LAWYER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 6

PROSECUTION OF LAWYER

NO ADVICE BY CROWN LAW OFFICE ATTORNEY-GENERALS DENIAL (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A denial that the police in Christchurch were acting on the advice of the Crown Law Office in bringing the recent case against Mr. C. S. Thomas, barrister, of Christchurch, was made by the Attorney-General, the Hon. T. K. Sidey, in an interview today. Mr. Sidey said that his attention had been drawn to the statement in the recent issue of a Christchurch newspaper headed, “Crown Law Office is Taken to Task.” It was there stated that the charges against Mr. Thomas, which were recently dismissed by the magistrate, Mr. E. C. Levvey, at Christchurch, were laid on the advice of the Crown I.aw office. The statement was absolutely without foundation. In laying Informations for alleged otfences under the Crimes Act and other statutes affecting the general criminal law, said Mr. Sidey, the police acted on their own responsibility. It was not their practice to consult the Crown Law Office except when an opinion was sought on some purely legal issue, or when by statute the leave of the Attorney-General or So-licitor-General was required for the laying of the information. No distinction was made between solicitors and any other class of persons. In the c ase referred to, the Crown Law Office was not. consulted, and the statement in the newspaper, as previously stated, was quite Incorrect.