Episode description
In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Political Reporter Anneke Smith looks into the Family Court system as it nears its 40-year anniversary.
"It's something that just hangs over someone's head constantly ... to be under that constant stress is just not good for families and it's not justice, really," - Family Court lawyer Marieke van den Bergh
Trish - not her real name - has been waiting 16 months for an urgent protection order application hearing. In that time, her ex-partner has showed up unannounced to her house, which scared their autistic son so much he climbed out his bedroom window.
"Coming up to a year and a half waiting, I'm having my hearing for my protection order application ... I found it really hard to get mentally prepared for it, I think because I've had to push it to the back of my mind for so long," Trish says.
As the 40-year anniversary of New Zealand's Family Court nears, some lawyers believe it's falling short of its own standards while Māori leaders say their efforts to engage with the court's leadership have been ignored.
Listen to the full podcast
Born out of a Royal Commission on the Courts report, the Family Court was set up as New Zealand's first specialist court in 1981.
The Commission reviewed the entire court system and, among other things, concluded the Family Court should be its own division with a two-fold purpose - both judicial and therapeutic.
It was considered innovative at the time, but lawyer Tania Williams Blythe says it has not changed much since, and traditional formality and delays in the system are entrenched.
"There's always been a distance between the community - those that come into the court - and those professionals including the judiciary that participate in that process."
"Part of the problem I guess, in terms of significant delay and the damage that that causes, is by the time you get into the court, the damage is already done."
Read more:
Dames say their concerns ignored by top Family Court judge
Te Ao Mārama - new approach to district courts announced
Extensive reforms introduced in March 2014 were intended to encourage people to resolve parenting disputes out of court, but the changes had unintended consequences.
The legal profession saw the changes as majorly disruptive; removing parties' rights to legal representation in parenting and guardianship disputes and wiping legal aid, with the exception of urgent protection order applications. …