By ANGELA GREGORY
Corrections Minister Matt Robson has suspended a major increase in court fees due to be implemented next week because of insufficient consultation over the planned rises.
Mr Robson said yesterday that the proposed fee changes, which were to have taken effect on Sunday, would instead be put on hold for three months.
"Having received more submissions, it is now clear that the consultation process was not robust enough when the increase was first proposed."
Some court charges were to rise by up to 650 per cent, with the cost of taking a case to the High Court jumping from $120 to $900. Dispute Tribunal fees were to have been halved.
The rethink has been welcomed by lawyers, who were alarmed that huge fee increases would make it more difficult for people to take civil cases to court.
The Government had argued the new charges reflected a fairer division of costs.
Under the old regime, fees recovered 7 per cent of costs in the Court of Appeal, 24 per cent in the High Court, 36 per cent in District Courts and 22 per cent in the Disputes Tribunal.
The new fees would have recovered 26 per cent of costs from the Appeal Court, 54 per cent from the High Court and 48 per cent in District Courts.
Mr Robson said the initial thinking was to ensure the taxpayer did not subsidise giant corporations willing to pay $1000 an hour for a lawyer but get a small court fee subsidised 90 per cent.
"Now we need to step back and take the time to give reassurance that no individual New Zealander or local small business will be denied justice because of court fees."
He had told his department that more time was needed to talk things through and a working party would report back in two months.
Mr Robson said the proposal had introduced the opportunity to waive fees altogether in the Court of Appeal, in the same way as in the High Court, and he would now look at extending that to the District Court.
The New Zealand Law Society president, Christine Grice, earlier argued that access to justice should not be restricted to wealthy litigants and that insufficient consultation had taken place with lawyer groups.
Miss Grice said yesterday that the society had been asked to comment on the principles behind court fees and the balancing of justice versus cost issues.
But she said it needed to make more detailed submissions drawing on raw data to analyse where the court expenses fell.
Under the fee-increase proposal, the cost of filing to start proceedings in the High Court was to jump from $120 to $900 and the cost of setting down a hearing was to rocket from $650 to $2200.
Similar increases were to apply to Court of Appeal cases, and a District Court hearing was to rise from $145 to $450.
Fees for the Disputes Tribunal, which deals with disagreements involving less than $12,000, were to have been halved.
Miss Grice said those figures had not been put forward in advance for comment.
Auckland lawyer Olinda Woodroffe, who met Mr Robson on Sunday to outline her concerns and present a petition calling for the increases to be suspended, was delighted at the turnaround.
"I should thank God, because I missed church for it."
Government in 11th-hour switch on big rise in court fees
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