In case you missed it: Nicky Hager awarded interim costs

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 15th, 2016 - 34 comments
Categories: journalism, police - Tags: , ,

In case you missed this last week amongst the US presidential election aftermath, via Stuff:

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has been awarded interim legal costs towards $475,082 spent suing police.

The author of Dirty Politics won the first part of his case against police for the way a warrant was obtained to search his Wellington home in October 2014.

Police said they were looking for evidence of the identity of a computer hacker who gave Hager material for his book.

A High Court judge found police breached their duty of candour in the information they gave a district court judge who was asked to issue the warrant.

Special rules apply to looking for information from and about journalists, and the judge’s attention was not drawn to that.

Go hard, Nicky.

Previous coverage of Nicky Hager’s case at The Standard:

34 comments on “In case you missed it: Nicky Hager awarded interim costs ”

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  1. One Anonymous Bloke 1
    15 November 2016 at 9:44 am

    Great news which means nothing to those police who lied to the courts. This will not cost them a cent, let alone ensure that they face charges of conspiracy to commit perjury.

    • Chuck 1.1
      15 November 2016 at 4:39 pm

      You can always initiate a private prosecution if you feel strongly enough about your convictions OAB.

      “Great news which means nothing to those police who lied to the courts”

      “let alone ensure that they face charges of conspiracy to commit perjury”

  2. save nz 2
    15 November 2016 at 9:46 am

    Fantastic news. I hope the final settlement is very high as a deterrent for these politically motivated illegal searches by police. It sounds like members of the police did not agree with it and were just following orders.

    Of course now the government can just get the SIS to do it, no questions asked and they are indemnified from the law or any public transparency.

    Not what you would expect in a democracy.

  3. greywarshark 3
    15 November 2016 at 9:46 am

    That’s very good news for Nicky and for those of us who love having a country ruled by (good) law.

  4. dukeofurl 4
    15 November 2016 at 10:02 am

    The other parts of his cases against Police are still ongoing.
    Award of damages for their illegal search warrants
    Accessing his travel records
    Accessing his bank accounts.

    All this and yet the police generally refuse to attend a house burglary after its occurred. Yet they flew detectives from Auckland to do the Hager search.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 4.1
      15 November 2016 at 10:04 am

      This isn’t really a part of the case – it’s part of the invoice.

    • tc 4.2
      15 November 2016 at 11:09 am

      Its all about priorities with nationals police.

      Prominent kiwis, journos that annoy the govt, camermen who record public chats etc

  5. Colonial Viper 5
    15 November 2016 at 10:25 am

    Absolutely deserved for Hager and the service that he has rendered to all Kiwis; our courts still recognise what true justice is…sometimes.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1
      15 November 2016 at 10:54 am

      1. It’s going to his lawyers, not him.
      2. Don’t forget to wipe up the piss you just aimed at the justice system’s pocket.

      • Garibaldi 5.1.1
        15 November 2016 at 1:31 pm

        OAB, there is no need for such vitriol (as in 2 above). If you think our courts are perfect you are delusional. Our justice system is more centred around how much money you have and not on justice. Or is it a just a case of, like mm, you cannot help yourself when CV says something?

        • Chris 5.1.1.1
          16 November 2016 at 9:29 pm

          “Look, there’s that bloody right-wing Hitler-loving piece of shit standing up for Hager again. And to think our taxes are paying for that. He makes me fucking sick.”

      • Chris 5.1.2
        16 November 2016 at 7:54 pm

        If it didn’t go to his lawyers then he’d have to pay them himself so same difference.

  6. ianmac 6
    15 November 2016 at 11:44 am

    Imagine if the costs had gone the other way. So, great for Nicky and the lrgal team who stood by him all the way.

  7. Bob 7
    15 November 2016 at 12:31 pm

    Brilliant! Does anyone know if Givealittle has the ability to reverse payments in these kinds of situations (since he obviously will no longer require the donations): https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/nickyhager

    • rob 7.1
      15 November 2016 at 1:03 pm

      funny,(not really funny) how this gets buggar all of a mention in the news etc. when it going to cost the tax payer yet again for another cock up

      • Garibaldi 7.1.1
        15 November 2016 at 1:35 pm

        It’s probably just as well it is not common knowledge, it would only fire up idiots like Hosking and the rest of the “hate Hager” club. Sadly that mob are a majority in this misled country.

        • tc 7.1.1.1
          16 November 2016 at 6:37 am

          Majority in the MSM.

          I think wider NZ realises that Hager has done an honest and worthy job but they also understand the vindictiveness of shonky’s regime so they wisely keep their own council.

      • Scott 7.1.2
        15 November 2016 at 2:47 pm

        It was reported, at least on Stuff’s website, last Friday. You’re right though, I didn’t see it anywhere else.

        But in the end it is not that newsworthy. He was awarded scale costs (not the figure above – actually under half of it), and that is typical when someone wins a judicial review case. In a way it would be newsworthy if it were anything else.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1.2.1
          15 November 2016 at 4:00 pm

          Whereas in reality these are interim costs, and he hasn’t won anything yet.

          • Scott 7.1.2.1.1
            15 November 2016 at 4:34 pm

            As far as I can discover he has been awarded costs on the action so far (in that way they are interim). A copy of the decision has yet to be published on the nzlii website (but it seems to have been made on 8 Nov) so I haven’t been able to confirm the detail in the Stuff report about it.

            The Court has yet to hear argument on damages, so he may have that to come along with scale costs contribution toward time spent on that step. Then again, it may well settle from here.

    • Scott 7.2
      15 November 2016 at 2:39 pm

      Not a silly point Bob. There were nearly $66,000 of donations.

      But he did not get awarded all he sought so the donations will still leave a shortfall.

      According to Stuff on 11 November (and there may be a more up to date account):

      “The High Court has yet to hear Hager’s claim for damages from police for breaching his rights. In the meantime, his lawyers asked for police to pay Hager’s legal costs of $475,082.78. Alternatively, they asked for costs on a reduced scale of $232,672.78.
      Justice Denis Clifford awarded the lower level of costs, further reduced to pay for two lawyers but not for the third who appeared in court for Hager. The judge did not put a figure on the amount of the reduction.”

      Notice the report in the post above uses the word “towards” in the opening line.

      • GregJ 7.2.1
        15 November 2016 at 10:28 pm

        Actually it is a silly point.

        It was clear on the page “Any money over and above what is needed for legal costs will go to help Nicky continue his work.”

        I donated – I’m happy for the money to go towards his legal costs or to support his work. Frankly if he wants to use some of it to go and buy himself a bloody big beer to relax that’s fine with me.

  8. Aaron 8
    15 November 2016 at 1:39 pm

    I think I speak for everyone when I say:

    $475,000!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • save nz 8.1
      15 November 2016 at 4:34 pm

      @Aaron

      I’d like to see full court costs plus 1 million in damages for Hager … send the government a message, courts!!!

      Otherwise Hager gets nothing for all the disruption to his life and livelihood and the lawyers get everything! Not really justice even if there is justice!

      Journalism is a dying art. Only a few decent journo’s left so very important justice is given to Hager to keep our government and media transparent.

  9. Tom Barker 9
    15 November 2016 at 6:43 pm

    I donated towards Nicky’s court cases. If he recovers the whole amount plus damages from the cops, I’ll be delighted and he’s welcome to keep my donation since I have no doubt at all that he’ll use it wisely and well on behalf of us all.

  10. RedBaronCV 10
    15 November 2016 at 9:58 pm

    Well all the mangers at the cops who get over say $150k should have their salaries cut back to the minimum wage until those costs are paid -or some variation on that theme-

    Why should they get higher salaries when they are clearly not up to the task.
    And how much are we going to be paying out for those illegal stops in the Hutt?

    • tc 10.1
      16 November 2016 at 6:44 am

      They’re up to the task, it’s just not the task you expected as it’s more political than policing with national pulling their strings.

      National have successfully devalued the NZ Police in most kiwis eyes as they’ve happily played their political game rather than do their job of police at times.

      Salters diversion being one of many ‘wtf’ moments which was pure politics zero policing.

    • The New Student 10.2
      16 November 2016 at 2:02 pm

      Or should the paycuts be applied to those who manage the managers of the ‘cops’

  11. Paul Campbell 11
    16 November 2016 at 5:45 pm

    Pity this doesn’t come out of the police beer fund …. You and I will end up paying for it and the police who behaved so badly will suffer no consequences

  12. Michelle 12
    17 November 2016 at 12:01 pm

    We wont hear much about this from our mainstream media just like we didn’t hear much about John Miller the ACC lawyer who won his case and other cases against the crown/ACC fighting for the soldier who suffered from PT depression and many Nzers have had to go to court as the gnats have been denying them ACC entitlements and our government has had to fork out millions but many NZers don’t actually know about this as it is kept quiet and hidden by our media shame on them. NZ police need to be sorted they are the biggest gang in NZ