Justice for all
New books for DIY lawyers
Dunedin lawyer Ben Nevell has launched a series of e-guides for people with no other financial choice but to represent themselves in court.
Nevell was inspired by the rising number of ‘‘self-represented litigants’’ arguing their own cases.
There’s growing concern about the issue since the Government moved in 2012 to make civil aid ‘‘sustainable’’ by making it harder for people to qualify for it.
Nevell says: ‘‘There are a lot of people falling through the gaps.’’
‘‘The income threshold for a single person is something like $22,000. You basically have to be a beneficiary to get civil legal aid,’’ he says.
And when people need to head to court for civil, it is often because they have lost either money, or an income, which often results in them being unable to pay lawyers to take a case that may last months, or years.
Nevell says: ‘‘Often people aren’t able to get justice because they lack money and are up against organisations that can use the process to grind them down.’’
He was first inspired to write guides on how to self-represent when the Family Court was reformed two years’ ago in a bid to reduce the role played by lawyers.
The idea came as he lay awake in bed fretting about how people could be helped to prepare for the ordeal of representing themselves in court, which he says is an intimidating environment for the ordinary person, and one where it can seem people are speaking a different language from everyday English.
‘‘I saw it as an opportunity to provide something that would help people to go through the system,’’ he says. ‘‘There is nothing out there for selflitigants.’’
Although, that’s not strictly true, Nevell admits. There is some material produced by the Ministry of Justice, but he describes it as ‘‘cursory’’.
‘‘I wouldn’t have written the books if I thought that what the Ministry of Justice had done was sufficient.’’
The guides are not just about the process and what to expect when stepping into court, but also how to formulate your ‘‘theory of the case’’, lawyers’ jargon for the key legal position to be argued in court.
So far Nevell has written guides
‘Often people aren’t able to get justice because they lack money and are up against organisations that can use the process to grind them down.’ Ben Nevell
to representing yourself in the Employment Court and the Family Court.
If there is enough demand he will follow up those guides with others on ACC, fighting bankruptcy, and debt collection.
He’s selling the books through the Legalebooks.nz website.
Nevell believes New Zealand does not place enough value on access to civil justice, especially in contrast to the focus on access to criminal justice.
‘‘People just think it is about losing a bit of money, not their liberty, but people lose more than money when they miss out on civil justice,’’ he says.
Someone wrongfully deprived of their job, for example, may lose self-esteem, their sense of identity, and even physical wellbeing. He says it’s common for people seeking legal aid to also be seeking anti-depressants from their doctors.
Figures from the Law Society show that in the year to June 30, 2015, total legal aid payments were $130 million, a long way behind the total payments made in the year to June 30, 2012, when they totalled $148m. Civil legal aid was down from $6.7m in 2008 to just $5.5m.