CIVIL COURT AT LYTTELTON

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26409, 1 May 1951, Page 3

CIVIL COURT AT LYTTELTON

OPPOSITION TO REMOVAL

BOROUGH COUNCIL AGAIN PROTESTS

A letter from the Minister of Justice (Mr T. C. Webb) was received by the Lyttelton Borough Council last night in reply to the council’s protest against the removal of civil business from the Lyttelton Magistrate’s Court to Christchurch. The Minister said that the Magistrate’s Court Act. which came into force on January 1, 1949, made some revolutionary changes in procedure There was now no necessity for holding civil sittings, except in the very small proportion of defended cases. Documents could.be filed by post and the entry of judgment in undefended civil cases was reduced largely to a matter of office routine. He added that the decision to divest Lyttelton of civil jurisdiction was made on the recommendation of the Justice Department after careful study. The volume of work did not justify the retention of civil jurisdiction. No local body was consulted when 16 courts were closed and 48 courts were divested of civil jurisdiction.

“I cannot for the life of me see why the civil cases cannot be heard in Lyttelton when the Magistrate attends for the police sittings,” said the Mayor (Mr F. G. Biggs). On the motion of Cr. Gladys Boyd, seconded bv Cr. E. H. Paulsen, the council decided to make a further protest against the removal of the civil court to Christchurch.