Labour’s ill conceived and wrong earthquake court has been widely panned.
The Press give Labour a quiet slap around the chops for developing Christchurch policy on the hoof without thinking it through and arguing that their proposal will likely fail and thankfully only lists a dozen obvious reasons why…could go on forever otherwise. They still have a little hope that Labour can come up with something..anything that is actually a policy that someone has thought about for longer than it takes a 737 to travel between Wellington and Christchurch.
Christchurch has Megan Woods, Ruth Dyson, Clayton Cosgrove and the Mayor and between them they have come up with nothing so either big Gerry is doing a fantastic job that can’t be improved on or the Christchurch Labour party is tits.
Labour’s idea would allow claims of up to $1 million to be brought before the District Court, which has less expertise in complex commercial matters and would require expanding its jurisdiction from the present limit of $200,000.
Simply finding judges equipped to handle the work could be a problem. Labour says they would be found from among retired judges (which means they would be 72 or older) or suitably qualified senior lawyers.
The legal expertise required to provide judgments that are both swift and just, however, is not common nor cheap. Appropriately skilled lawyers may be reluctant to swap their practices for a District Court judge’s pay.
Labour also says the government would cover all costs which means that claimants would have an incentive to lodge a claim, no matter how weak it was.
There is a danger the court would soon be swamped. Impatience with the time taken to deal with claims is understandable but most are now well-advanced.
Care must be taken that any proposals for change improve the lives of those still waiting for settlement and don’t simply add complexity to an already frustrating situation.
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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.
To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.