A delegation of New Zealand judges and lawyers are in Samoa to share their knowledge on the art of cross-examination.
The group are paying their own way and will take part in a jury trial workshop which will see mock trials take place and give opportunities for lawyers to be critiqued on their skills in the art of cross-examination and trial work reports Stuff.co.
Criminal barrister Marie Dyhrberg KC will be part of the contingent.
She said as well as running workshops, the New Zealand lawyers and judges would visit the prison, police, victim support and prosecution office.
“It’s not all beer and skittles and lying around in the sun.”
Dyhrberg ran a similar workshop in Vanuatu three years ago. Samoa was to follow, but the outbreak of Covid-19 put plans on hold.
She hoped the project could be extended further afield to the Cook Islands.
Elaine Ward is a south Auckland lawyer of Samoan descent. She said the trip was about giving something back to Samoa.
“It’s only natural … they are the people we represent in the community we serve.”
She said south Auckland was an extension of the Pacific.
But it was also a two-way street and New Zealand lawyers and judges would also get something out of it: “It will give them a taste of the culture that appears in front of them in south Auckland.”
Auckland boasts of being the Pacific capital of the world and is home to 300,000 Pasifika people, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Ward said the programme owed a lot to the Chief Justice of Samoa, Satiu Simativa Perese, who had allowed the workshop the use of courtrooms.
Chief Justice Perese attended school and university in New Zealand before practising law for three decades. He also served on the Human Rights Review Tribunal before being appointed Chief Justice of Samoa in June 2020.
The group leaves in early April.
Photo credit: Government of Samoa - (Marc Membrere) Caption: Inter-Bench Judicial Exchange Conference Ava Ceremony