Justice Paul Neazor is remembered as down-to-earth and straightforward but with a quirky side by journalist Pat Plunket, who spent 10 years covering the courts in Wellington.
"He's a judge with a background in public law," Plunket said.
Justice Neazor was careful and had no reputation for any political partiality.
"He's probably a
good appointment, although you could say that of almost any judge."
Plunket said he could remember Justice Neazor saying in court once that he did not have a driver's licence.
"He used to, on occasions, travel on the back of the bus."
The New Zealand Law Journal says he worked his way through university, first in the Public Trust Office and then in the legal division of the New Zealand Railways Department. From 1972 to 1980 he held the warrant as crown solicitor for Blenheim. He became president of the Wellington District Law Society in 1985 and was a vice-president of the New Zealand Law Society in 1986 and 1988.
The judge, who has two sons and three daughters, served on the committee of his local school for eight years and had been on the St Patrick's College board of governors.
Among the high-profile cases in which Justice Neazor was involved were the Mountain Rock music festival throat-slashing trial of Nomad gang leader Dennis "Mossie" Hines, the third trial of Wellington businessman John Barlow for the murders of father and son Eugene and Gene Thomas, and the appeal that overturned a decision allowing Maori a customary right to fish for trout.
- NZPA
