David Bain's legal team misunderstands the Justice Minister's role in awarding compensation and have used court proceedings to make groundless accusations, government lawyers say.
The Bain team are attempting to challenge the decisions that Collins made in response to Justice Binnie's report on the Bain case but the Minister and cabinet have considerable discretion in making the compensation decision and are not bound by any hard and fast rules. Government lawyers argue that the Minister is perfectly entitled to reject Binnie's report and seek a review.