Former All Black Pita Alatini recognised the vacant and childlike expression on the face of his old mate, Teina Pora.

A reflective David Bain. Fonterra always made it clear it was in the business of making dairy products, not friends. Even its milk-in-schools programme was acknowledged as a strategy to build consumers of the future.

Justice Minister Judith Collins is wrong when she says Teina Pora cannot be pardoned by the Governor-General until he has exhausted all his appeal rights.

Government scientists say the three-year delay in linking a serial rapist to the rape and murder of Susan Burdett was because of laborious DNA techniques and an unprecedented workload because two serial rapists were active in Auckland at the same time.

Justice Minister Judith Collins has admitted convicted rapist Teina Pora, who has spent the past 20 years in prison, could be innocent.

Does anyone but Police Minister turned Justice Minister Judith Collins remain convinced Teina Pora raped and killed Susan Burdett?

The belief that convicted rapist Teina Pora is innocent is gaining momentum among key political figures.

The teenager accused of a vicious assault on homeless man Edwin Linder was on bail at the time of the attack.

Are the criminals who appear in our courts a bunch of badly dressed, poorly spoken layabouts, as Judge Callander complains, or are they victims of a hostile system?

Professor Ian Campbell was my most astute and memorable law teacher at Victoria University of Wellington. He emphasised to his hapless young students that the law was about words: what they mean, how they work and when they can change or effect change.

Grumpy old Judge Russell Callander would be appalled at the flotsam and jetsam of humanity who congregate each morning outside the big glass entranceway of Auckland District Court, paving Albert St with cigarette butts.

Cynotech Holdings' chairman Allan Hawkins says the company was put into liquidation to protect "everybody's interests".

Israel has said it will release "heavyweight" Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement to enter preliminary talks in Washington.

More than $300,000 from the sale of a $2 million luxury yacht ended up with a company directed by his father-in-law, a court heard yesterday.

The mastermind of one of NZ's biggest public service frauds is about to be released from prison to live on a property "most of us can only dream about".

A former rich-lister is back at the High Court today, fighting to be discharged from bankruptcy - one of 24 the Official Assignee has objected to releasing.

A justice reform group is calling for 17-year-old offenders to be dealt with by the youth justice system rather than the adult criminal courts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must have been a very angry man when he sanctioned the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in March 2009, for tax evasion.

Who is the volunteer Wikipedia editor who has inadvertently come to attention in a "wikispat" between Justice Minister Judith Collins and a ministry critic?

A man who used a video camera to secretly film a young girl has been sentenced to home detention at a property near a Hastings primary school.

The woman who found the video camera belonging to a man convicted of covertly filming women and children said she was left "sick to her stomach".

Building products firm Alesco's tax-avoidance battle is heading to the Supreme Court but its chances of success are slim, says one adviser.

In her judgment against what was in many respects a phantom company on trial, Judge Jane Farish was clear about where the buck should stop, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

High-profile boxing promoter David Higgins has been revealed as one of the men caught up in an assault which left his brother with a broken cheekbone and shoulder.

Ten horses were left to starve on lawyer Barry Hart's property after it was seized by the bank, leaving at least two in an emaciated state.

An urgent rule change by the Corrections Department which banned smoking in prisons has been ruled unlawful by a High Court judge.

Mark Tucker will never know how much money he lost during the darkest days of the Rena disaster.

More than 3600 former Feltex shareholders are now opted into litigation against the carpet-maker's former directors and an updated list of claimants has been filed with the High Court.

A lawsuit claiming the ANZ Bank charged "excessive" penalty fees is to be filed in the High Court at Auckland today.