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People
will miss out on justice if the Government increases court fees,
the New Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) warned
today. CAB has advised the Government to put society's access to
justice ahead of any new scheme of cost recovery for the Courts,
and has specifically called for the abolition of Disputes Tribunal
fees.
In
a submission to the Courts' Department CAB has told the Government
that court fees create a barrier to society's access to justice.
"In
our experience, people are not getting justice because they cannot
afford it. Instead of finding ways to recover Court costs by increasing
fees, the Government should be scrapping Disputes Tribunal fees
and introducing ways of ensuring no one in society misses out on
using the Courts when they need to. CAB is asking the Government
to abolish the Disputes Tribunal fees to make sure that everyone
is able to get their smaller scale civil disputes heard.
"The
Government discovered for itself in a very dramatic way that the
level of fees has a direct impact on determining access to the Courts.
When the Disputes Tribunal fees were put up from $10 to $30 for
claims under $1000, the number of cases taken to the Tribunal decreased
by over 10% in the first six months. Many people, specifically those
on low incomes, could not afford to take their cases to the Tribunal
and these people were missing out on getting justice," says New
Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux Chief Executive,
Mr Nick Toonen.
The
Government is considering ways of recovering costs in the Courts
system, but the CAB says this could put barriers in the way of people
getting justice in civil disputes.
"We
acknowledge that there are some areas where fees could be charged
without impacting on peoples' access to justice, but there are other
vital areas in the Courts' system where all barriers to individuals
getting justice must be removed.
"The
Disputes Tribunal is one of these areas. It was set up to provide
a cheap and effective resolution service for people with disputes
under $7,500, without the need for lawyers to get involved.
"In
our experience many people with very legitimate cases, such as being
ripped off by a tradesperson or retailer, have not been able to
get things put right because they cannot afford to go to court.
For example, if a person has saved to buy a $300 vacuum cleaner
that breaks down, and the retailer won't replace or repair it, the
purchaser will then have to spend 10% of the cost of the vacuum
cleaner to have their case heard in the Disputes Tribunal. If they
cannot afford that fee, then the retailer gets away with it, and
will probably continue to ignore their obligations to future customers,"
says Mr Toonen.
Background information
The
New Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux provides a free
national service to all individuals of impartial and confidential
information, advice and support, and makes responsible use of the
experience so gained.
There
are 91 Citizens Advice Bureaux throughout the country, handling
over half a million enquiries each year. In these bureaux over 2,700
trained volunteers take time to listen, offer options of relevant
services and information, and, as necessary, work with clients to
identify an effective course of action.
Over
the past two years CAB dealt with:
-
8,000 enquiries about the courts and justice system (excluding
the Disputes Tribunal)
-
7,000 enquiries about the Disputes Tribunal (this does not include
enquiries about the Maori Land Court, Waitangi Tribunal or Motor
Vehicle Disputes Tribunal)
- 32,000
enquiries about breakdown of relationships, including custody
and access, matrimonial property, separation and dissolution of
marriage issues; many of these involving the Family Court.
In
addition to these:
-
Over 10 percent of our annual enquiries (which totalled 580,000
in 1999-2000) are consumer related and for a good proportion of
these the Disputes Tribunal is an important avenue of redress
- Over
the past two years bureaux provided free legal advice or referrals
to over 30,000 clients, and a good proportion of these will have
led to the client using various tribunals to resolve their dispute.
Through
the Department for Courts, the Government is consulting on a discussion
document on equitable fees in civil courts.
[Click
here for a copy of the submission]
[Click
here for a copy of the latest media release on Disputes Tribunal
fees - June 2001]
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