Budget justice

• Date: 15 February 2021
• Published date: 15 February 2021

"I think I spent about a quarter of a million dollars on my own legal fees. My ex-partner would have spent a similar amount. And I don't think that's an unusual story."

Katrina Smithson is speaking by phone from Sydney where she now lives. She is reflecting on the legal system in New Zealand where she grew up and worked for many years.

Smithson went through a relationship break-up that she says cost her far too much in money, time and stress — all because the world of laws, lawyers and courts was a foreign one to her; as it is to most people.

"I went in to the whole process quite blind," Smithson says.

"I went to see a lawyer straight away. You get swept up in this. You can end up paying for two lawyers to have an intellectual battle with each other."

Smithson, who has just published a layperson's guide to using the Family Court, says some legal information is available from sources such as the Ministry of Justice website.

"But to understand that in plain English . . . and for people to actually visualise their way through . . . can be quite hard."

She is saying much the same thing as a new report by University of Otago law lecturer and researcher Dr Bridgette Toy-Cronin.

Toy-Cronin, who researches barriers to the justice system, says most New Zealanders cannot afford a lawyer and do not qualify for legal aid, leaving them unable to access justice.

The report Toy-Cronin has co-authored, "Online Legal Information Self-Help in Aotearoa: An agenda for action", published just before Christmas, says there is a widening gap in access to justice in New Zealand and the need to address it is "acute".

"The need . . . is particularly grave here, given the nation's justice gap," Toy-Cronin says.

"In a 2017 study, 63% of people had a legal problem, [only 32% were able to access help] and nearly half experienced hardship as a result."

The result is laws on the books that cannot be used in the real world because they cannot be accessed and mobilised by those who most need them.

"You end up with people who have some form of deprivation being unable to access their legal rights, creating an inequality in society."

The idea that the legal system can be confusing and difficult to access is backed up by Manukau District Court judge Alan Goodwin. Goodwin has written the foreword to Smithson's The New Zealand Family Court Survival Guide, which is being released on Monday.

In the foreword, Goodwin says court proceedings are often difficult, challenging and emotionally draining.

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