Improving Access to Civil Justice

The Ministry of Justice is supporting work to create a more user-centred civil justice system. The civil justice system deals with a wide range of people’s legal disputes, including those related to employment, consumer rights, debt, and families and relationships.

In March 2020, the Chief Justice, the Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann, and Secretary for Justice Andrew Kibblewhite, convened a workshop bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders in the civil justice system. They heard from people working in the system that it is complex and multi-faceted, and that different people and organisations are experts in different parts of the system.

Stakeholders told us that the system needs to be more user focused, and that better data is needed about those who use it. The Access to Justice Advisory Group is co-chaired by Ministry and judicial representatives and was established to bring to life ideas from the workshop. The group is supporting work in several areas to improve access to civil justice including:

  • a national strategic framework, to guide how we work together to improve access to civil justice in Aotearoa New Zealand
  • a legal needs survey to collect data on the prevalence of met and unmet legal need for civil justice.

Wayfinding for Civil Justice - A national strategy for working together to improve access to civil justice in Aotearoa New Zealand

Wayfinding for Civil Justice (Wayfinding) is a national strategy for access to civil justice. Civil Justice stakeholders led its development, and it was released in December 2023. You can read the full strategy in both   English [PDF, 1.4 MB] and  Te Reo [PDF, 1.5 MB].

Wayfinding aims to:

  • encourage a unified and coordinated approach to improving access to civil justice
  • use the sector’s resources as strategically as possible, and
  • provide clear signals to funders of access to justice mahi (government and non-government) about existing work, where the gaps are, and where co-ordination can be achieved.

Wayfinding supports a unified approach by setting a shared direction for improving access to civil justice. Those working in the civil justice sector can use Wayfinding to inform how they select, coordinate, and plan their civil justice initiatives.

Wayfinding includes goals or waypoints for guiding work programme selection. It also includes principles or guiding lights, which can be used as a guide for how those in the civil justice sector work.

Wayfinding is not a government strategy. It has government support, but it is a stakeholder strategy developed by a representative working group. The working group included Dr Bridgette Toy-Cronin, Hon. Raynor Asher KC, Wi Pere Mita, Gabrielle O’Brien and Anne Waapu. You can read more about the working group here.

The process for developing Wayfinding included two rounds of engagement to reflect the expertise and experience of people working or involved in the civil justice sector.

For more details about the project see our FAQs.

For further information please contact: wayfinding@justice.govt.nz

Legal Needs Survey

We are working together with the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment to conduct a nationwide survey to explore what everyday New Zealanders, and small business owners are doing (or not doing) to resolve their legal problems.

Legal need arises when people or businesses require legal assistance or support from legal services to resolve their issues. Legal issues resolved through the formal justice system, such as the courts, only capture part of the picture of legal need in New Zealand.

The survey will update and add to research conducted by the Ministry of Justice in 2018, looking at civil justice issues. Civil legal need can arise from everyday activities, including buying goods and services, employment, financial arrangements, driving a vehicle, renting or buying housing, breaching a criminal or civil order and interactions with local and central government. 

Our survey looks at legal needs experienced by 5,500 New Zealand adults with particular focus on:

  • small business owners
  • Māori and Pasifika communities
  • people residing in rural/non-metro areas.

The phone survey of randomly selected New Zealanders will take place during 2023.

By using a random sample, the survey will capture people who don’t realise their problem or issue has a legal solution and may leave it unresolved. These people do not traditionally show up in data looking at the use of justice services.

A report of the survey findings is due by mid-2024.

We will use the findings to:

  • strengthen the evidence base for government projects and policies
  • ensure we are targeting programmes and systems at those in the greatest need
  • identify whether there is a need for new services or policy changes to help small businesses resolve issues and disputes
  • link the data with other government data in Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) so that approved researchers can look at other factors that may be affecting legal needs.

For more details about the project see our FAQs.

For further information about the survey please contact: legalneedssurvey2023@justice.govt.nz

This page was last updated: