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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979

From the Courts

page 6

From the Courts

As a result of a number of recommendations by the Royal Commission on the Courts, the Minister of Justice has announced a number of reforms to the present Court system. Legislation will be passed during the remainder of this year and at dates later to implement reforms. The Minister hopes that these reforms will provide a court structure which will serve New Zealand for generations to come. The reforms in general move substantial amounts of work from one court to another in an attempt to remove delays and relieve pressure on the courts.

At present the court structure consists mainly of the Magistrate's Court followed by, in ascending order, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and finally, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which sits in London.

The Privy Council will remain as the highest court of appeal for New Zealand cases.

The Court of Appeal will be restructured to enable one more judge to be permanently appointed, thus raising the number from four to five including the Chief Justice. The court will also sit in separate criminal and civil divisions.

The present Supreme Court will be constructed as the 'High Court', which will form part of the new Supreme Court, consisting of the Court of Appeal and the High Court. A substantial amount of jurisdiction will be transferred from the High Court to the District Court. The Crimes Act will be amended to allow certain accused persons to elect trial by High Court Judge alone i.e. without a jury. This will probably, according to the Minister, be exercised in complex cases. The right to elect jury trial in matrimonial matters will be abolished.

Magistrate's Courts will become known as "District Courts" and Stipendiary Magistrates will be Riven the, exulted title of 'District Court Judges'. At a later date the District Courts Jurisdiction will be extended to include criminal jury matters. This jurisdiction must await plans relating to court facilities, procedural rules, etc. In Auckland and Wellington, new Supreme Court buildings are planned. District Courts will also have their civil jurisdiction extended from the present $3,000 to $12,000.

Family Courts will be set up as a division of the District Court. These courts will have flexible procedures and provision will be made for counselling and pre-trial settlements will be encouraged.

Small claims tribunals, already in existence in Christchurch, New Plymouth and Rotorua will be extended to all centres with the need for such a Tribunal.

Twenty four courts in towns such as Featherston will be closed. These courts account for only of the total workload of the Magistrate's Court and generally sit on only one or two days a month, these courts have only been closed in areas which have adequate transport to another court centre. This measure will also save money in maintenance and replacement of court-houses, estimated in excess of $3 million.

Full-time interpreters will be trained in court practice, procedure and terminology and arrangements made to "improve, modernise and update language used in the courts". The mildly contraversial matter of court dress such as wigs and gowns has been left for the lawyers and the judiciary to sort out for themselves.

The preceding information is just a summary of a paper prepared by the Minister of Justice concerning this matter. The paper is entitled A New Court Structure for New Zealand and can be obtained from the Department of Justice.

One might hope that these reforms to the court structure of New Zealand are just the begining of an entirely new legal system, because we could certainly do with one. On paper it would appear that these changes will certainly streamline the passage of justice, and that will be a relief to many. At the begining of April this year there were 96 criminal, 56 civil and 2 miscellaneous appeals awaiting hearing involving several murder convictions and well over $900,000 in ascertainable civil matters.

Speedy justice may be good, but only if that justice is fair, and to claim that in New Zealand at present is more than a little naive. Offences involving property often rate harsher penalties than those involving people, such as assault. No wonder violent crime in on the increase. Where is the justice in the Government bowing and scraping to the gangs while individuals are quick and easy meat. The law applies to all, but seemingly there is safety in numbers. Perhaps if the law came down as heavily on gang violence as it does on 'victimless crimes' it would be safer to walk the streets.

The judicial system is more atuned to victimising good citizens who smoke marijuana or have homosexual tendencies than it is to disturbing the gangs slightly. I have yet to see dope smokers or gays get free travel to Wellington to talk over their problems with the Government.

Chris Conway

Drawing of a person in a canoe