22 February 2023
Attention: John Luke
By email:
<[FYI request #25495 email]>
Dear Sir
Official information request for template appointment letters for King’s Counsel
Our Ref: OIA353/1
1.
I refer to your official information request dated 23 January 2024 for “the
template appointment letter of KC and also the one issued to the Honourable
Judith Collins”.
2.
As you will be aware, your request has been transferred to the Crown Law Office.
3.
The appointment of King’s Counsel is undertaken as part of this Office’s Law
Officer functions. Previous Ombudsman’s rulings and case law has established
that information relating to such functions is not subject to the Official
Information Act 1982 (the
Act).
King’s Counsel appointment patent wording
4.
However, we acknowledge that Hon Judith Collins’ appointment as King’s
Counsel is a matter of public interest.
5.
We also note that the Patent signed by the Governor General appointing Hon
Judith Collins as King’s Counsel uses the same wording as all other King’s Counsel
appointments and thus raises no privacy concerns.
6.
For those reasons, we
annex to this letter the wording of the Patent appointing
Hon Judith Collins as King’s Counsel.
Your rights
7.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours faithfully
Crown Law
Peter Gunn
Crown Counsel
7708480
2
ANNEX 1: PATENT WORDING FOR APPOINTING HON JUDITH COLLINS AS KING’S
COUNSEL
Charles The Third, by the Grace of God King of New Zealand and of His Other Realms and
Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
To: The Honourable Judith Collins, Attorney-General for New Zealand, Greeting!
WE, confiding in your knowledge, experience, prudence, ability, and integrity, do
nominate, constitute, and appoint you, the said
The Honourable Judith Collins
to be one of Our Counsel learned in the Law for New Zealand for and during Our pleasure,
to take rank next after Jason Keith Goodall, King’s Counsel, and you are to discharge the
trust hereby reposed in you to the best of your knowledge and ability, with due respect to
the law and usages of New Zealand, mindful always of your obligations to the court.
Given under the hand of Our Trusty and Well-beloved The Right Honourable Dame Cindy
Kiro, Chancellor and Principal Dame Grand Companion of Our New Zealand Order of
Merit, Principal Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, Governor-General and
Commander-in-Chief in and over Our Realm of New Zealand:
and issued under the Seal of New Zealand on this
day of
two thousand and twenty-three
By Her Excellency’s command.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL
7708480