CALL TO ACTION

ANALYSIS: A nearly two-decades-old idea has been dusted off in a bid to give people a fair, fast, cost-effective way of dealing with money disputes.

It’s been an open secret that the rule of law is weak when it comes to financial disputes since a 2004 Law Commission report suggested the establishment of a

‘‘community court’’.

Simply put, money disputes are civil law matters, where when one person, or company, wrongs another, that other has to sue them to get justice.

But the cost of that justice (the money cost, the emotional cost, the time cost) is just too high, except for the smallest of disputes, a report published by the Rules Committee of the higher courts.

Some lawyers told the committee that any case involving a claim of less than $500,000 was not economic to be litigated by the average person.

Others put the figure lower, at $200,000 but, regardless, the cost is just too high for the average person and, by definition, just under half of us are less than average, so it’s even less achievable.

In such a world, there is a risk that economic abuse by the powerful of the weak can be carried out with impunity, the Rules Committee report says. This threatens to undermine the rule of law.

The 2004 Law Commission report suggested a new community court be established to sort out civil disputes the higher courts were unfit to deal with.

Fast forward on to 2022, and instead, the Rules Committee suggests the Government move to allow the Disputes Tribunal to hear financial disputes up to a monetary value of $100,000.

This is a community court by another name, and it’s a good idea, as it will make it easier for the average person to hold someone who has wronged them to account.

Currently, the Disputes Tribunal, which is a lawyer-free zone, can hear cases involving up to $30,000. It handles these cases quickly, cheaply, and well, the report says.

Without lawyers, hearings feel a lot less adversarial, than do our higher courts, but the tribunal is not perfect.

It lacks transparency, publishes few cases so people taking claims to it have an idea how it works and how to present their cases,

Got a question for Rob Stock or an issue you want him to tackle? Contact him by going online to Neighbourly and typing the name of our newspaper into the search bar. Click our name and select Contact from the menu bar and ‘‘message our reporter’’ from the drop-down menu.