Improving Access to Civil Justice
Last updated 9 August 2024
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Rules Committee Report on Improving Access to Civil Justice |
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Committee looking at changes to the High Court Rules
The Committee is continuing its work on the Improving Access to Civil Justice project into 2025. Its present focus is proposing amendments to the High Court Rules 2016 in line with its recommendations in Chapter 4 of its Improving Access to Civil Justice Report. The proposed changes would see a revised structure for general civil proceedings.
For more information, see Chapter 4 of the Report as well as the Committee's continuing discussions about the proposals in the minutes of the Committee's meetings.
Release of the Improving Access to Civil Justice Report
Rules Committee Report on Improving Access to Civil Justice
Media Statement on Release of Report
In November 2022, the Rules Committee completed its Improving Access to Civil Justice Report. The Report is a result of the Committee's review of the rules of court for the purpose of improving access to civil justice begining in late 2019.
The Committee thanks all those who submitted as part of the consultation process. To see the Committee's past consultation, including responses from submitters, click through the links at the bottom of this page.
The Report involves recommendations to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. The recommendations include changes to the jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal, increasing the capabilites to the civil jurisdiction of the District Court and changing the structure of civil proceedings in the High Court. Some of these recommendations differ from proposals previously consulted upon in some respects, particularly in relation to the proposals for the High Court. This was, in part, due to submissions received by the Committee.
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2019-2020:
The Rules Committee undertook broad community consultation over 2019 to 2020. The consultation asked submitters what barriers they perceived there to be standing in the way of meaningful access to justice and what ideas they had for the Committee to address those barriers. Submissions in response to the consultation paper closed in September 2020. On this page, you can find an overview of the consultation process, as well as the consultation paper.
2020-2021
Response to Initial Consultation
The Rules Committee received several submissions in response to its initial consultation. On this page, you can find an executive summary of submissions as well as most of the individual submissions received.
2021
Second Consultation and Response
In 2021, the Rules Committee engaged in a second consultation round. It was felt that a meaningful response to many of the matters raised by submitters to the initial consultation would require overarching changes not within the Committee's power to implement. On this page, you can find the consultation paper as well as an executive summary of submissions and most of the individual submissions received.
2022-2023
Third Consultation
In 2022, the Rules Committee published its Improving Access to Civil Justice report. Across 2022-2023, the Committee engaged in a third and limited consultation round with previous submitters asking for feedback on its proposals as outlined in the Report.
The Committee is very grateful for the time and effort which went into each submission.
The Clerk to the Committee at the time, Anna McTaggart, prepared an executive summary of the submissions which were received before the submission deadline. That summary was used by the Committee in its substantive discussion of the submissions in March 2023.
The individual submissions received in response to the third round of the consultation are available here.
2024
The Rules Committee did, in August 2024, receive limited comments from previous submitters on its implementation of proposed changes to the High Court Rules 2016 to improve access to civil justice.
The submissions received in response to the consultation and a memorandum commenting on submitter's suggestions are available here.