A law change could cover criminals due to arrive in NZ by charter plane this week - but serious offenders already deported here won't be monitored.

Figures showed 96 second strikes had been issued in courts since the legislation was introduced, with the number increasing each year.

Almost 100 offenders have been issued final warnings under the country's "three strikes" law, but no offender has reached a third qualifying offence.

Detectives sought the banking, telephone and travel records of author and journalist Nicky Hager without any search order or other legal power.

A multi-million-dollar fraudster "motivated by naked greed" has finally admitted his guilt and said he was ashamed of his behaviour.

The liquidators of an Auckland building company that collapsed owing more than $4 million believe its director is somewhere in Europe.

A British developer has come up with an ingenious way of getting rid of annoying spam emails and getting revenge on the people sending them in one fell swoop.

Young people sent to a state-run boot camp on Great Barrier Island were made to dig what they were told would be their own graves and concerned staff blowing the whistle were ignored.

After 68 weekly columns of irreverent fun, frivolity, jolly japes and an occasional fact or two, CaseLoad is spiked from the NZ Herald as of today, writes Jock Anderson.

The FMA is expecting a wave of appeals after deregistering 100 companies from the Financial Service Providers register, as it awaits a High Court ruling on Vivier & Co's appeal.

Labour has put its support behind an examination of the justice system that will look steering young offenders away from adult courts.

Expanding electronic monitoring of offenders could be at the expense of their rehabilitation in the community, a justice reformer says.

Michael Murray is expected to be 'kept out of general population' as he serves his time for killing Connor Morris.

So-called independent teeth-gnashing, hair-shirt inquiries into dysfunctional court sentencing and offender monitoring are a waste of time and money, writes Jock Anderson.

The Government is right to press ahead with plans to extend the use of electronic monitoring of offenders. But they are far from infallible.

Failed Crafar farms bidder and fraud case defendant May Wang has failed to bar Hong Kong prosecutors from accessing seized documents.

Weird things are said when lawyers gather. Jock Anderson looks behind the scenes of the legal profession.

There is no evidence a top policeman committed perjury while giving evidence in a court case involving Kim Dotcom, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found.

Jock Anderson on play-acting in London, real judging for Simon Moore, trustworthy-looking lawyers and more.

Prime Minister John Key says Kiwis would be aghast and deeply frustrated that Tony Douglas Robertson raped and murdered Blessie Gotingco soon after getting out of jail.

New Zealand could actively encourage the disclosure of serious wrongdoing by financially incentivising whistleblowers to make protected disclosures, writes Anthony Russell.

The Commerce Commission says its ongoing consumer credit dispute with Motor Trade Finance is its most significant case for establishing rules on what fees lenders can charge.

Jock Anderson on the clear leader in the scramble to succeed Dame Sian Elias as the next Chief Justice, and more.

An undercover agent socialised in the VIP lounge at SkyCity casino to gain the confidence of suspected drug dealers.

There is a very strong public interest in ensuring that the state has the power and resources to investigate the commission of criminal offences, writes Nick Russell.

Auckland QC Paul Edmund Dacre - who led the fatally flawed prosecution of John Banks - is not out of the fire, writes Jock Anderson.

It comes after an investor appeals a High Court decision ordering him to repay $454,000 of "fictitious profits".

A US judge compared three children to cult leader Charles Manson and sent them to live in a juvenile home because they refused to have lunch with their father.