16 July
New Zealand’s judicial system
affords lawyers and barristers, the key to justice.
An
unfettered position within a legally prescribed pathway to
justice portends a paradigm where justice is predicated on
money; where persons seeking to prove their innocence and/or
refute allegations of malfeasance or misconduct, must
mortgage or sell family homes to have any hope of
vindication.
Such financial burdens are beyond the
ability of the majority of New
Zealanders.
Conservatives NZ party policy for Justice
includes:
- Reform New Zealand’s justice system to
place mandated mediation, negotiated settlement, and
restorative resolution at its centre, ensuring that
adversarial court proceedings are used only when disputes
cannot be resolved fairly by agreement. - Promote a
justice system that encourages early, affordable, and
collaborative dispute resolution by expanding access to
mediation and settlement processes, reserving litigation for
cases where alternative resolution is inappropriate or
unsuccessful. - A handbrake to be applied to all legal
fees charged by lawyers and barristers, to obviate the
potential for legal agents to deliberately extend litigation
for financial gain. - A body independent of the Law
Society and the Law Commission to review fees charged by all
barristers and lawyers. - Review the merit of
introducing a final appeal court akin to the Privy
Council.
Conservatives NZ will ensure that
procedural mechanisms, including security for costs, cannot
be used to deny ordinary New Zealanders their fundamental
right to access the courts. The justice system must balance
the protection of defendants against the right of every
person to have a legitimate claim determined on its merits,
regardless of financial resources.
Conservatives NZ
will also address the issue of Google and social media
platforms, failure to comply with NZ law whereby minor
convictions deemed Clean Slate after a specified time frame,
continue to be displayed – inconsistent with New Zealand
Law.
Ross Meurant:
Senior Policy
Advisor
Conservatives
NZ
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