Trans Tasman Legal Changes
Posted by Steve Huggard on June 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment
In July last year, Ministers from New Zealand and Australia signed a trans-Tasman Court Proceedings and Regulatory Enforcement Treaty, which could see changes to present trans-Tasman legal arrangements being introduced into both countries, later this year. The expanding of these trans-Tasman legal arrangements will allow for civil proceedings from a court in one country to be served in the other, without additional legal requirements that are currently experienced.
The agreement would extend the range of civil court judgments that can be enforced in Australia, with judgments being refused enforcement only if there is a conflict with the present public policy in the country of enforcement. In addition it will allow trans-Tasman enforcement of fines for certain regulatory offences where there is a strong mutual interest in doing so. This will allow enforcement of civil penalty orders which could be extended to tribunals on a case by case basis.
It does appear that international law on cross border insolvency is also being seriously looked at, to no longer allow persons leaving the country, leaving creditors without economic legal recourse.
Some of these arrangements are likely to include extending the regime to criminal and family proceedings allowing for judges of a lower court, ie: from High to District court, to grant leave to issue a trans- Tasman subpoena in proceedings before that court.
These changes should alleviate some of the court workload as they would not longer have to deal with the complexities of attempting to get enforcement orders which previously had been extremely costly and still difficult to enforce.
If you would like to review the likely changes in more detail the proposals can be found at;
www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/reports/2006/trans-tasmanworking-group-report/index.html
