Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010

An investigator may apply for a warrant by phone, facsimile, email, radio, video conferencing or another form of communication if the investigator considers it necessary because of—

urgent circumstances; or

other special circumstances, including the investigator's remote location.

The application—

may not be made before the investigator prepares the written application under clause 5(2);

but

may be made before the written application is sworn.

The magistrate may issue the warrant (the original warrant) only if the magistrate is satisfied—

it was necessary to make the application under subclause (1);

and

the way the application was made under subclause (1) was appropriate.

After the magistrate issues the original warrant—

if there is a reasonably practicable way of immediately giving a copy of the warrant to the investigator, for example, by sending a copy by fax or email, the magistrate must immediately give a copy of the warrant to the investigator; or

otherwise—

the magistrate must tell the investigator the date and time the warrant is issued and the other terms of the warrant; and

the investigator must complete a form of warrant including by writing on it—

the magistrate's name; and

the date and time the magistrate issued the warrant; and

the other terms of the warrant.

The copy of the warrant referred to in subclause (4)(a), or the form of warrant completed under subclause (4)(b) (in either case the duplicate warrant), is a duplicate of, and as effectual as, the original warrant.

The investigator must, at the first reasonable opportunity, send to the magistrate—

the written application complying with clause 5(2) and (3); and

if the investigator completed a form of warrant under subclause (4)(b), the completed form of warrant.

The magistrate must keep the original warrant and, on receiving the documents under subclause (6), file the original warrant and documents in the court.

Despite subclause (5), if—

an issue arises in a proceeding about whether an exercise of a power was authorised by a warrant issued under this clause; and

the original warrant is not produced in evidence;

the onus of proof is on the person relying on the lawfulness of the exercise of the power to prove a warrant authorised the exercise of the power.

This clause does not limit clause 5.