EQC tribunal offers little help, National says

Outstanding Canterbury earthquake claims could take as long, or longer, to be resolved by a new tribunal, ministerial advice says.

The Government is pursuing legislation to set up a promised tribunal aimed at speeding up settlement of unresolved claims.

Only a portion of the 3600 claims outstanding from the quakes will be eligible to be heard by the new tribunal, as on-sold homes and some complex cases before the courts will not qualify.

A report prepared for Justice Minister Andrew Little by ministry staff warns resolving claims through the tribunal could take longer than the status quo. This could be caused by difficulty accessing specialists such as technical experts, engineers and lawyers, and by the tribunal not being sufficiently resourced, the advice says.

The report says such problems could undermine public faith in the justice system’s ability to handle the earthquake cases. The legislation allows for transfer both ways of cases between the new tribunal and the courts.

National Party EQC spokesman Stuart Smith said yesterday the planned new law failed to ‘‘offer anything different to what is already available’’.

Smith said the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal could only decide on simple cases which were not already before the courts, ruling out a vast majority of EQC claims.

‘‘How is a Tribunal supposed to solve these if they are required to transfer claims to the courts?

‘‘Experts and lawyers will be stuck between the courts and the tribunal which will only slow things down even more.’’