People who come to the courts deserve prompt justice, the NZBA says
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New Zealand should realise that the District Court’s situation has become so critical that the government needs to immediately intervene, the New Zealand Bar Association (NZBA) said.
Clive Elliott QC, NZBA president, was reacting to a column by Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue, who wrote that the District Court system has been so hobbled by challenges that managing resources has become almost impossible.
Likening the situation to robbing one division to bolster another, the chief judge said that she had decided to redeploy resources to the Family Court. The move admittedly hurts the criminal and civil systems, but Doogue said that the District Court has been essentially left with no choice.
Elliott agreed that one of the areas of pressure is the Family Court, where about 8,000 Care of Children Act cases are waiting to be heard. This is an unacceptable situation, he said.
“The situation in the Family Court is one example. It is clearly serious when the welfare of so many children is likely to be affected by these delays. The reality is that the only way the courts can manage, is by pushing further delays onto litigants,” Elliott said.
Both Doogue and Elliott said that certain changes to the law have put pressure on the district courts. Elliott said that restrictions placed on who can serve as an acting judge have created an untenable situation for the court.
“The situation in the Family Court is one example. It is clearly serious when the welfare of so many children is likely to be affected by these delays. The reality is that the only way the courts can manage, is by pushing further delays onto litigants,” Elliott said.
The District Court Act 2016 has required that acting judges be selected from former District Court judges who are under 75. Though there was a cap on permanent judge appointments prior to the 2016 act, it has disqualified lawyers and other retired judges from becoming acting judges.
“Those who come to our courts, either voluntarily or because of involvement in the criminal justice system, are entitled as of right to prompt justice,” Elliott said. “There is an old truism that ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’ This is particularly true of those who fall within the family and criminal jurisdictions. These are areas that need to be dealt with promptly for both individuals and society as a whole, so that people can resume their lives and move forward.”
The situation is an impending crisis due to a shrinking judiciary, increasingly complex cases, and a significant rise in without-notice applications at the Family Court, Elliott said. He said that the total number of judges in the system has decreased in real terms. The country cannot afford to lose judges, he said.
“It is important to attract talented individuals to serve as members of the judiciary. This becomes less likely in an under-resourced system,” he said.
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District Court distress: Alarm sounded over unsustainable workload pressures
New District Court Act said to add to problems
