Access to justice a key consideration in review of civil court fees

Civil court fees are to be reviewed to ensure they are set fairly and consistently across the range of civil jurisdictions, Minister for Courts Georgina te Heuheu said today.

“There are over 200 individual civil fees with multiple guidelines and as a result, fees have tended to be set in an ad hoc and piecemeal manner. The review will ensure a consistent framework for fee setting in jurisdictions that the Ministry of Justice has responsibilities for,” Mrs te Heuheu says.

“This will ensure that fees are set in a principled, consistent and equitable way.

It is important that civil fees are set at the right level – we need to achieve a balance to provide incentives for the efficient use of civil justice services while also ensuring costs do not act as a deterrent for accessing justice,” Mrs te Heuheu said.

Cabinet agreed to a two stage review of civil fees earlier this year. The first stage was an adjustment for inflation of all Ministry of Justice set fees which took effect from 1 July 2011. Prior to the adjustment, most fees had not been changed since 2004 when the last comprehensive review of civil fees was undertaken.

The review of civil fees will be conducted by the Ministry of Justice over the next 12 months. The views of the judiciary and key stakeholders will be sought, and a public consultation paper is planned for release in February/March 2012.