The chief judge of the District Court is finalising a proposal to subject New Zealand's 133 district court judges to performance reviews and greater public scrutiny.

Eight men accused of an alleged Auckland Super City voter scam have had their trial shifted to the High Court.

it's a common misunderstanding that the jury must decide whether the person is "innocent".

The diary of one of the royal commissioners who found police had planted evidence against Arthur Allan Thomas focuses scepticism on the detective who led the murder inquiry.

A murderer serving a life sentence should be considered for laser treatment to remove his gang tattoos to help his community reintegration, says the Parole Board.

The man behind Mark Lundy's last-ditch bid for freedom says he is confident the Privy Council will quash the jailed killer's murder convictions.

A murderer sentenced to life in prison after beating his friend to death with a crowbar and dumping her body in the Waitakere Ranges has been denied parole.

Hanover Group Holdings has filed an appeal after it lost a High Court fight with insurance giant AIG over a policy worth up to $20 million.

Most boy racers seem to be learning their lesson, with only 127 convictions for illegal street racing being racked up by repeat offenders over the past three years.

The Law Commission will investigate the issues raised by lawyers researching jurors on the internet, then tailoring their arguments to help them win cases.

A love story that began at a murder trial drew to a poignant close this week.

When serial con-man David Nepia Carroll needed money, it seemed nothing was off-limits, not even children's piggy banks.

The father of a victim of the Colorado cinema massacre yelled "rot in hell!" at the alleged gunman as a judge delayed the trial.

Darren Ian Hodgetts used a coll-eague's computer log-on to leak confidential information to a target of a drugs investigation for a promised fee of $5000.

10 years ago, a Law Commission paper found our court system too slow, too costly and unhelpful. Today, there is still a long way to go - and modern technology must be harnessed to improve efficiency in black-and-white cases.

C K Stead explains why he is not surprised that Judith Collins ordered a review of the Binnie report on the Bain case.

A judge has ruled a prison smoking ban is unlawful - a victory for career criminal Arthur Taylor, who challenged it in court.

A district court judge is waging a crusade from the bench to stop serious offenders being released back into the community.

This Christmas, more alleged criminals will be in jail awaiting trial than in any previous year on records supplied by our prisons. The number has steadily increased since this Government came to power, to a estimated 1671 this week.

The one-armed man touted as a new suspect in the murder of two Swedish tourists was feared to have killed two other people, the Herald has been told.

Images from a murder scene are beamed straight to a laboratory, and jurors are given a virtual "tour" of a scene, allowing them to get up close .

Lindy Chamberlain's lawyer believes David Bain has been treated worse than his own client by the justice system - led at the very top by Judith Collins.

Conman Loizos Michaels has been sentenced to eight years in prison after he "manipulated his victims for greed".

The family of Wellington man Phillip Cottrell have spoken of the agony of losing a loved one after verdicts were delivered on the two men accused of his murder.

A psychopath confessed to the murder of two young Swedish tourists for which David Tamihere spent 21 years in jail, says a new book due for release on Friday.

Prime Minister John Key has defended Justice Minister Judith Collins' criticism of a report on David Bain's compensation bid.

David Bain believes he might have become an international opera star on a par with Jonathan Lemalu.