Lawyer angry at new law on jail compo

A lawyer who is fighting a Crown attempt to reverse compensation awarded to prison inmates is disgusted the Government intends passing a law today that will apply to his case.

Tony Ellis was surprised yesterday to learn that part of the Prisoners and Victims Claims Bill would retrospectively apply to his case being heard in the Court of Appeal this week.

Justice Minister Phil Goff's office confirmed the bill would be fast-tracked so it can apply to the case.

The bill lets victims take civil action against prisoners who are granted compensation payments.

The legislation was introduced after a lower court last year awarded a total of $130,000 compensation to five inmates, for mistreatment in solitary confinement at Paremoremo.

Mr Goff's spokesman and Associate Justice Minister Rick Barker confirmed the law would apply to Mr Ellis' case.

The Crown is appealing against the compensation payments, which sparked widespread outrage. Mr Ellis is cross-appealing over the amount awarded. His clients include convicted murderer Christopher Taunoa.

The bill is expected to pass with the support of the Greens, who previously opposed it. The deal includes establishing an independent prison complaints authority and a sunset clause of mid-2007 on the bill's main provisions.

But Mr Ellis warned the move to apply the law to his case would only lengthen it as he would "definitely" challenge any civil claims victims made against his clients' payments.

"Any retrospective legislation is offensive," he said. "It's even worse when you are in the middle of court proceedings and they are passing legislation."

"It will mean that there will have to be a challenge to it and ultimately it will presumably go offshore as to whether this legislation can stand scrutiny against our international obligations."

He was referring to the possibility of taking the legislation to the UN human rights committee or the committee against torture.

Greens justice spokesman Nandor Tanczos said he was aware of the retrospective nature of parts of the law.

"Our position was that we weren't supporting the bill until it became apparent it was about to become a whole lot worse. That's when we changed out position."

United Future initially supported the bill but now opposes it, swapping position with the Greens. United Future had wanted to put a stop to any financial compensation to prisoners who had been subjected to abuse while in prison.

But Mr Tanczos said that would have infringed human rights.

United Future law and order spokesman Marc Alexander criticised the Labour-Greens deal as doing nothing but forcing victims to confront their offenders all over again.

"United Future offered to support a moratorium on inmate claims until a real solution could be found.

"But clearly Labour is so desperate to put this issue to bed before the election that they would stoop to doing a sleazy deal with the Greens that sells every victim of crime short."