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The Family Court Complaints and Appeals Landscape

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The Family Court Complaints and Appeals Landscape “Don’t Tell Me Your Problems” The Family Court complaints and appeals landscape Copyright © The Backbone Collective Material from this document may be used in other publications but it is expected that it will be referenced in the usual way. Published September 2017 Available at www.backbone.org.nz This document has been written by Deborah Mackenzie and Ruth Herbert from The Backbone Collective (Backbone). Backbone has produced this report because there is currently no clear information available to women and children who have experienced violence and abuse and who want to complain about or appeal matters pertaining to the New Zealand Family Court. The authors work for Backbone in an unpaid capacity and due to time and cost restraints they were limited to using Google searches and Official Information Act requests to collect and collate the information contained in this report. It is therefore acknowledged that some of the information in this report might be inaccurate or incomplete. Backbone would like this document to be used as a starting point for the development of a comprehensive manual for women and children who have experienced violence and abuse and who want to complain about or appeal matters before the Family Court. We welcome any corrections to the material contained in this report or additional information regarding the multiple agencies and their relevant legislation and complaints processes and protocols. The authors are not lawyers - we would welcome information to assist our interpretation of the legislation that guides complaints and appeals in the Family Court. We hope that this report will start a collective conversation among government, funders, policy makers, the judiciary, the agencies named in the report, front line service providers, Family Court service users and their whanau and supporters to shape a more effective complaints and appeals mechanism for Family Court users. Please provide feedback to [email protected] We would like to thank all the women who took part in the Backbone Family Court survey and mini survey who bravely shared their experiences of the Family Court and the various complaints and appeals processes to help build the report we have presented here. And a special thank you to Lemonface Design for creating the ‘wrong door’ graphic for us. https://www.facebook.com/lemonfacedesign/ Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5 The Backbone Collective ..................................................................................................................... 7 The appeals and complaints landscape .................................................................................................. 8 Women’s rights ................................................................................................................................. 11 Children’s rights ................................................................................................................................ 11 Tangata Whenua Rights .................................................................................................................... 11 Women’s and children’s right to appeal and complain .................................................................... 12 Not all women and children can appeal and/or complain ............................................................... 13 Those in the know are in the know and everyone is keeping mum ................................................. 15 Repercussions of complaining .......................................................................................................... 17 Appeals .................................................................................................................................................. 18 Not every decision can be appealed ................................................................................................. 19 There is a short time frame in which to apply .................................................................................. 20 Cost ................................................................................................................................................... 20 Appealing did not make things better .............................................................................................. 20 Complaints ............................................................................................................................................ 21 Judicial Conduct Commissioner ........................................................................................................ 23 Principal Family Court Judge ............................................................................................................. 25 Chief District Court Judge ................................................................................................................. 26 Minister of Justice and Courts .......................................................................................................... 27 Law Society ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Psychologists Board .......................................................................................................................... 34 Oranga Tamariki/Ministry for Vulnerable Children (MVCOT) .......................................................... 37 Independent Police Conduct Authority ............................................................................................ 39 Ombudsman ...................................................................................................................................... 41 Humans Rights Commission .............................................................................................................. 41 Privacy Commissioner ....................................................................................................................... 43 Health & Disability Commissioner .................................................................................................... 44 Children’s Commissioner .................................................................................................................. 45 Legal Aid Tribunal .............................................................................................................................. 46 Local Member of Parliament ............................................................................................................ 47 Supervised Contact Services ............................................................................................................. 48 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 49 ii Figures Figure 1: Overview of the complaints response to the Family Court ..................................................... 4 Figure 2: Every Door is the Wrong Door - Family Court complaints and appeals landscape .............. 10 Figure 3: Women’s understanding of the role of various Family Court professionals ......................... 14 Figure 4: Have your children wanted to activate their own court proceedings but been denied?...... 14 Figure 5 : Individuals and organisations that women have complained to about the Family Court .... 17 Figure 6: Who did you make the complaint to? .................................................................................. 21 Figure 7: Levels of satisfaction with the response received to their complaint ................................. 22 Figure 8: Key for grading scale for each complaints body .................................................................... 23 Figure 9: Women’s experiences of discrimination in the Family Court ................................................ 42 Figure 10: Overview of the complaints response to the Family Court ................................................. 50 Tables Table 1: Number of Family Court Hearing Events where media are recorded as attending ................. 6 Table 3: Reasons women didn’t complain about their experiences in the Family Court .................... 13 Women’s words “I couldn't have afforded to appeal, and felt that it wasn't an option available to me. With 1 senior judge following our case it felt pointless, anyway.” “I made a complaint about lawyer for child's conduct, and had a witness to back it up (in writing) and I was completely ignored. The L4C had the right of response and he lied about everything, but this was accepted at face value despite an external witness.” “I was silenced throughout the Family Court proceedings and every appeal I made whether to lawyers, Ministers of Justice & Police, CYFS, Prime Minister John Key have been met with the same response, denial and refusal to investigate the facts.” “No complaints process in the family court has integrity and all ends up back at the same judge you are effectively complaining about anyway. Sometimes you can't even find out who to complain to (eg supervised contact centre) or the organisation (eg Human Rights Commission) won't accept your complaint.” “The abuser said I make complaints if I don't get
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