NZ: Family Court hearings - better than a movie
Otago Daily Times
March 1, 2004
Family Court hearings - better than a movie
by Michael Guest
Michael Guest is a former lawyer and District and Family Court Judge
Has ACT New Zealand MP Muriel Newman completely lost her marbles?
I thought her Family Courts (Openness of Proceedings) Amendment Bill had been well hung, drawn and quartered and that there was only a tiny giblet left dangling in the proposed Care of Children Bill allowing family and whanau to attend the court only if they had been to an earlier mediation. I criticised even that much of an intrusion in my first column.
But whoa. Ms Newman's Family Courts (Openness of Proceedings) Amendment Bill bubbles to the surface in the lavatory bowl of lapsed legislation. It is a shocker. Forget the minor exceptions. This proposed law throws open the doors of the Family Court for all of us to have a gander . . . to have a gawk . . . a bit of a laugh.
The Bill was re-introduced on February 19. Its purpose is to require Family Courts to be transparent and open. The Bill has only nine sections. Clause 4 inserts a new section 11A in the Family Courts Act. It provides that sittings of the courts must be open to the public and that reports of their proceedings may be published. That is the overriding principle.
I accept the court will have the power to prevent publication when it is "in the interests of justice, or of public morality or of the privacy of any person". However, the public may be excluded only in exceptional cases. So, publication may be prevented on the strict grounds above, but the public could still be allowed to attend. How bizarre.
Today is March 1. "Beware the ides of March", penned Shakespeare in Julius Caesar , Act I, Scene II. I exclaim this legislation will sign the death warrant for civilised family dispute resolution as we know it. Your separation, your relationship property dispute, your custody battle, your domestic violence case and all your marital misery could attract an audience of blowflies you have never met.
It is the end of summer. Let me borrow once more from Shakespeare and his sonnet XVIII now that "summer's lease hath all too short a date". I welcome you to climb aboard the boredom bus for a full day's guaranteed entertainment at the Family Court. What to do on a rainy day? Want some fun with free admission? You might have your answer, if these pressure groups have their way, to pop along to your local Family Court, which sits almost every hour of every working day in our towns and cities, and have a bit of a gawk at other people's miseries. Bring sandwiches.
The curtain rises at 10 o'clock. There will be intermissions at 11.30am and 3.30pm, and a nice big break for lunch from 1pm to 2.15pm.
Show time will probably start with a straggle of maintenance dodgers. You will be able to marvel at the myriad of excuses and giggle at the real names of the mothers and children in pitifully poor financial straits. Guys might want to note a few good "certs". But, hey, you are only exercising your right to know what goes on in a Family Court.
After interval, you might just be lucky enough to catch a couple of paternity cases, right down to the "angle of the dangle" of sinful Cyndi and dirty Bertie. Marvel at the intricacies of blood and DNA tests. Names, places and details will surpass Days Of Our Lives and, to pinch a wonderful line from David Lange, you will be able to witness in true gladiatorial style, "Lays Of Our Dave". Far better than an afternoon at the movies.
Before the main feature starts, and for those who like blood sports, maybe you will take in three or four short domestic violence cases. He hit you where? You have bruises? Forget the privacy of the protagonists involved. You are only exercising your "right for the public to know what goes on".
The main event will surely be a fully blown custody case with allegations and counter-allegations, maybe some sexual abuse thrown in, but certainly plenty of juicy mental cruelty. The whole dynamics of a family in pain will be played out before you in a room of the same size once used for illegal cock or dog fights. But, hey, you are only exercising your right to know what goes on in a Family Court.
Bollocks. Common decency still has a role to play in the real world. Lofty principle is frequently misapplied and real people irretrievably hurt. People who profess to be motivated only by principle are usually people who are about to do something very mean.
When Julius Caesar happened on the soothsayer on the way to the senate, he replied: "He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass." I forward the same sentiments to any MP who sponsors this wretched Bill.
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