The Sensible Sentencing Trust will find out next year whether it can sue police and the Department of Corrections over the death of Karl Kuchenbecker.
Mr Kuchenbecker was killed in Lower Hutt in 2007 by Graeme Burton, who was on parole from a life sentence for an earlier murder.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust claims the two departments breached their legal duty to ensure that nothing done by their employees at work should cause harm to others.
An earlier District Court hearing ruled that the trust was too late in filing its legal action.
However, an appeal to the High Court resulted in the case being returned to the District Court for another hearing.
Lawyers for the trust made submissions on Monday, but the case was not able to be completed.
Lawyers for the police and Corrections will have their say in January.
