A district court trial has been aborted after a defence lawyer involved received a text informing him he was a close contact of a person with Covid-19.
The trial in Hamilton was just about to break for the morning adjournment on day two today when the lawyer received the text, he told Open Justice.
“I’m in the middle of a judge-alone trial and at 11.24am I get a text and it’s the health department saying that I had a close contact with somebody on the 4th February and that I’m to immediately isolate.”
He then got another text to say he would get a phone call from the Ministry of Health today.
“I stood up and told the judge I’ve got a text, what do we do, am I supposed to go home?
“And the judge said ‘well, yes you are’.
“There was a brief discussion and then we aborted the trial.”
