News

Wellbeing concerns and court pressures

There have been some recent reports of serious and urgent well-being concerns for barristers and other court lawyers. The Heads of Bench addressed these at a recent meeting with the profession.  

The Heads of Bench have been very receptive to hearing and dealing with these concerns, where practitioners may have experienced pressures in practice and with the Courts.  They wish to encourage reporting of specific examples so that they can be dealt with, and changes made where needed. 

We recognise that lawyers can be reluctant to raise these concerns.  There is an informal procedure in place which allows concerns to be raised by practitioners about the in-court conduct of judges where it departs from the standards expected under the guidelines for judicial conduct.

The details of the process can be found on the Courts of New Zealand Ngā Kōti o Aotearoa website. 

This process applies when practitioners do not want to use the formal complaints process set out in the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004. It aims to maintain the confidence of the practitioner(s) involved.  

Allegations by barristers can be raised with: 

•  The President of the New Zealand Bar Association.  
   The practitioner’s local NZLS Branch President or the Branch President in the area where the conduct occurred,
• The President of the Criminal Bar Association, after considering the information, provided the allegation does not relate to serious misconduct, the relevant President will refer the matter to the President of the New Zealand Law Society on a strictly confidential basis.
• If the NZLS President “considers it appropriate to do, he or she will pass on the concerns to the relevant head of bench. In doing so the Pres will describe the behaviour or pattern of behaviour and the effect on the lawyers involved but will not identify the lawyers concerned.  The Head of Bench will draw the concerns to the attention of the judge and will report back any response from the judge.  

Please note the following statement:
The arrangement is informal and intended to provide a known and accessible method of communication which has always existed. It does not create or restrict rights or affect the freedom of action of the practitioner or the judge. Because judges are necessarily independent of direction or discipline except under the statutory process of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004, a judge is under no obligation to make any response to the information
supplied.

We encourage you to make use of this process, given the willingness of the judiciary to deal with pressures on lawyers.  If you would like to discuss any matters confidentially, please feel free to email our President to arrange a time to talk.