Legal groups join lockdown judicial review

Barry Soper reports:

Borrowdale, a former legal draftsman at Parliament, is seeking a judicial review of the lockdown handling. The case is scheduled to be heard in the High Court at Wellington next month and it’s understood in a relatively rare move there will be a full bench of judges hearing the matter.

The court last week heard from the Auckland District Law Society and the Criminal Bar Association, which wanted to become involved in the case.

A judge also wanted to give the Law Society the opportunity to become involved and gave them until today to declare its intention, which the society has now done.

It’s expected the intervention will give specialist grunt to the case being mounted by Borrowdale.

This is a very important case. It is not about whether the lockdown was a good idea, but about whether it was done legally. The rule of law underpins our country.