uncertainty and apprehension about the unknown. The keeping alive of memories of
events which would best be put to rest so that someone can get on with making a new
life are examples of the abject failures in the timeliness of our Court processes.
Reducing these delays requires attention to the complex matrix of scheduling cases,
rostering judges, provision of adequate administrative services, effective case
management, counsel support and last, but by no means least streamlining existing,
often antiquated, court procedures. This is complex but there is now willingness in New
Zealand, I think (or certainly hope), to look at all these aspects.
My third issue relates to the nature of our processes and procedures. I believe that our
civil procedures have become constipated by Court Rules. This country, under the
committed leadership of Roger Coventry when he was Puisne Judge here, created a set
of Civil Rules for Court which are sufficient to ensure the basics. They
comprehensively cover what needs to occur so that people get to tell their story, to
identify their issues and to know what they are up against. The indignation of some
colleagues when the Law Commission suggested New Zealand could emulate their
approach. No-one identified the real problems in doing so.
The New Zealand approach is not inconsistent with what occurs in Australia, Canada
and perhaps the United Kingdom, although Woolf reforms did lessen some of the
burdens. Whether this sophisticated and prescriptive approach is necessary or justified
in those countries is open to debate but not here. I submit, that imposing this approach
in small emerging Pacific nations, is indefensible.