THIS WEEK’S ARTICLES
Issue 41 20 Nov 2020
Big changes afoot for our district courts p1
Should I take an in-house legal job? P3
Profile: Chris Gallavin, law professor and poet pages 6 & 7
LawNews adls.org.nz
THE COURTS
Major shake-up looming for our district court By Jenni McManus
When he was appointed Chief District Court Judge in September 2019, Heemi Taumaunu said he was intent on delivering transformative change to the justice system.
Chief Judge Taumaunu himself might balk at the ‘radical’ description. “I emphasise that none of the concepts and approaches encapsulated in the Te Ao Mārama model is radical,” he told attendees at the annual Norris Ward McKinnon lecture. “The many components have already been trialled in various forms in specialist solutions-focused courts over many years and they have been found to be both effective and fair. And they have not required legislative change. Moreover, the model is not intended to substitute for, but should enhance, lawful and principled sentencing outcomes.” But, as the chief judge also acknowledges, the plan – implementing therapeutic and individualised justice, with its emphasis on the root causes of offending, across the entire district court system – will require a major shift in the way defendants, victims, whanau and the judiciary relate to each other and to “the system”. Starting in Hamilton at the beginning of next year with the expansion of the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment (AODT) court into the Waikato, the principles and best practice from these specialist and therapeutic courts will be gradually mainstreamed. But unlike Auckland and Waitakere, where the
Photo by David Hallett/Getty Images
A year later, he has made a major step in this direction. In a speech in Hamilton last week, Chief Judge Taumaunu outlined a vision he calls Te Ao Mārama (“the world of light”) and a framework which is set to radically change the operation of our district courts, where 95% of New Zealand’s justice is dispensed by 172 judges, 30 acting judges and 18 community magistrates.
High rates of incarceration don’t necessarily make for safer communities
If you don’t understand the jargon and terminology, how does that make you feel about participating in the process? AODT courts operated as pilots from 2012 until the end of last year when they were made permanent, the Hamilton AODT court will have a separate Family Court ‘care and protection’ stream in addition to its criminal jurisdiction. This will be focused on young mothers with addiction and dependency issues. Chief Judge Taumaunu says it’s a child-centred approach that should “enable mothers to retain care of their children, with the wraparound support
that is required to ensure this is plausible. “The sad fact is that many of the children who come to the state’s attention do so in the Family Court first. There is more than enough evidence that children who end up in state care go on to have vastly higher incarceration rates. Yet children and young people living with parents who are addicts are vulnerable to falling on to the wrong side of the law, as well as harm and neglect. The expansion of the AODT court into Care and Protection offers a two-pronged approach to this conundrum by opening a new path for early and better-tailored intervention for mothers and their children.” It’s a controversial issue, which erupted in full media glare last year when Oranga Tamariki, armed with a custody order and citing ‘safety concerns’, attempted to uplift a newborn from Hawke’s Bay Hospital. The uplift came amid mounting public Continued on page 2