Amanda Margaret Courtney
Barrister
Amanda Courtney is a barrister working from Te Tai Tokerau, Northland, New Zealand. She has over thirty years of litigation experience.
Amanda has worked in Wellington and Northland for most of her career.
Current Areas of Practice
Parole Representation
Amanda regularly appears before the New Zealand parole board and represents persons at Ngawha prison and Auckland. Amanda is happy to act in relation to other geographical areas If available. Amanda appears at parole hearings for release, recalls and other related parole matters. Most persons are eligible for legal aid and should be encouraged to seek representation for these significant hearings that have a real bearing on a person’s liberty.
At times appearing also assists with enabling the release pathway to be identified so that programs are identified to assist the Board assessing risk and release proposals.
Family Law / Lawyer for Child / Youth Advocate
Amanda has been a Family Court lawyer for 30 years. She was appointed as a lawyer for child and youth advocate for 23 of those years and has been asked often to assist the Court in complex matters. Amanda has recently appeared as lawyer for the child in relation to an appeal to the High Court in a Hague Convention matter and has advocated to the Court of Appeal level where she appeared as sole counsel in an appeal which is considered a leading case on the role of lawyer for the child when assessing children’s views.
Criminal Law
Amanda is a criminal lawyer and is able to take high level criminal cases to the category of PAL 4 in relation to legal services. Her preference currently is to focus on parole representation but she takes criminal work from time to time when she has capacity.
District Inspector for Mental Health
Amanda is appointed by the Minister of Health to work in a role that is akin to that of an Ombudsman in this area. The work involves representing persons who have lived the experience of mental health challenges. Amanda provides information to such persons about their rights, takes complaints and visits them when they are subject to the Mental Health or Drug and Alcohol legislation.
Amanda’s role is to inspect and report on places that house mental health consumers and she reports regularly to the Director of Mental Health with recommendations.
Amanda has acted in this capacity in Wellington for about 7 years and has been in the Northland and Auckland area roles for about 4 years.
Memberships
Contact
Please add my email to your contacts.