The High Court has ruled that defence lawyers cannot get access to technical manuals for breath-test machines.
A ruling released yesterday upheld an application by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) to set aside witness summonses against it and its staff from defence lawyers in several drink-drive cases.
Defence lawyers
had previously asked police for access to commercially sensitive manuals for the Intoxilizer 5000 breath-tester.
But the Court of Appeal ruled in June last year that police did not have to hand them over as they were not theirs to disclose.
Instead, the court said lawyers could seek the manuals from the ESR, which maintains the devices.
That avenue was struck out yesterday by Justice Hugh Williams, who said the public interest in the manuals being kept confidential "outweighed the likely significance of evidence contained in [them] in relation to the prosecution of the defendants".
The ESR had argued that breathtesting would have rapidly become impossible if it was ordered to hand over the manuals.
Police Minister George Hawkins was also involved in the efforts to prevent access to the manuals, arguing that their disclosure by the ESR would be "injurious to the public interest".
