Court ‘mess’ harmful for families

The Government has ordered the third review into the Family Court in under a decade, as it aims to fix a system ‘‘in crisis’’.

Justice Minister Andrew Little said the terms of reference of the planned review into the Family Court would be announced in the next few weeks.

Family Court reforms were brought in under the former National Government in 2014, but Little said he was concerned about what he was hearing about how the courts were running, and the impact that was having on families and children.

Meanwhile, family lawyer Liz Lewes, who had been practising family law for 20 years, said the court was ‘‘in crisis’’.

‘‘It’s very clear that the changes that were made in 2014 are not working ... It’s just a real mess,’’ she said.

‘‘The current crisis in the Family Court is just causing so much harm for so many families.’’

The current housing crisis and New Zealand’s high rates of domestic violence were flowing through to the Family Court, adding to the pressure.

‘‘There are families really suffering in our society,’’ she said, adding that families were unable to move on with their lives, and gain stability while being slowly dragged through the court process.

Little said that in some cases, decisions concerning children were taking more than a year – ‘‘that is wrong’’, he said.

‘‘I’m sufficiently concerned about what I’m hearing, which is why we will be initiating a review of the Family Court. We have a major concern about access to justice generally, and the time taken to get things sorted out is just way too long.’’

In the March edition of the justice newsletter, Little said ‘‘public confidence in the criminal system and family law has been eroded and a managerial approach has failed. We can do better, and we will do better’’.

Without notice

Lewes said the former government did not listen to concerns raised by lawyers and judges ahead of the 2014 reforms, and the changes had resulted in people struggling to get court time, and judges being put under increased pressure.

The number of ‘‘without notice applications’’ relating to child custody issues now made up 88 per cent of applications – Little referred to a figure of 70 per cent. Either way it was a significant jump from the 30 per cent the without notice applications made up before 2014.

More parents were filing without notice applications in an effort to have their cases heard as soon as possible.

Without notice applications went straight to a judge to be considered.

Meanwhile, other applications often took about six months to be resolved, and in some cases more than a year, Lewes said.

In the meantime, relationships between the parents, and between children and parents could break down, especially if one parent was only allowed supervised contact in the interim.

Free counselling

One of the services scrapped in the 2014 reforms was access to six free counselling sessions for estranged couples.

The sessions helped people work out what their relationship was, and it could support a more amicable process. Sometimes it led to reconciliation, Lewes said. The counselling often saved time, money, and relationships in the long run.

The family lawyer also recommended giving the court the ability to refer children to free counselling or therapy sessions. At the moment, children could only receive free counselling sessions if they met the mental health threshold.

Legal aid

Little said one of the fundamental questions that needed to be addressed in the review was about people’s access to legal advice, and the family disputes resolution process.

At the moment, those who required legal aid were given two sessions with a lawyer – one twohour session before mediation, and one after mediation, if mediation did not result in a resolution.

The applicant then had to file papers to the court and represent their case in court, until a hearing date was set.

Those appearances were often confusing for people who didn’t understand the system, and took up an unnecessary amount of time, Lewes said.