Conversion Task For Court Staff

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 10

Conversion Task For Court Staff

The Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch faces a big task in the auditing and conversion to dollars of thousands of fines imposed for criminal and traffic offences.

“It is a task tbat has got to be done, but I can see no practical difficulties,” said the Magistrate’s Court Registrar (Mr D. P. Clancy). He said that from July 10 the magistrates would impose fines, with costs, in decimal currency. For example, instead of a fine of £lO, with 30s costs, the magistrates would impose a fine of 20 dollars, with costs of three dollars.

There would be an interim period in which the fines could be paid in pounds and shillings, and after that the fines and costs would have to be paid in dollars and cents. Another task facing the

court staff will be the conversion of about 1600 orders for maintenance, some of which involve pounds, shillings and pence, and not just round figures.

Most of the maintenance payments are made weekly, and these would all have to brought up to date before D.C.-Day, Mr Clancy said. However, again there was a period in which they could be paid in old or new currency.

The Official Assignee (Mr T. A. F. Withers) may have a complex task in some bankruptcy cases, where a partial dividend may be declared in pounds and the final dividend declared in dollars.

Court officials expect the change to decimals to affect the Magistrate’s Court more than the Supreme Court This is because the Magistrate’s Court collects maintenance money, which passes through the court’s trust account, and also collects more in fines and

deals with the majority of civil actions.

Most civil cases involve tradesmen’s or business debts, and these also pass through the trust account Solicitors will also face a big task in converting debts claimed into decimal currency. The Supreme Court handles a comparatively small volume of money transactions. Usually these are fees for filing documents and jurors’ wages. Fines are only occasionally imposed in the Supreme Court.

The difficulty of converting guineas—traditionally used by lawyers in assessing their fees—has been solved by a new scale of solicitors’ fees which the New Zealand Law Society last year recommended for adoption. Although no direction has been given not to charge fees in guineas, multiples of ss, 10s, and 15s are now commonly used under the new scale. These may be readily

converted into dollars. The, New Zealand Law Society has! sent out information on the! currency change and the necessary’ conversion of machines. The society recommends that dollar equivalents should be written into documents such as leases which are being prepared now and will be still effective after July 10. Taxi Fares One of the first industries in Christchurch to show itself publicly ready for July 10 is the taxi business. Most of the city taxis now have meters showing dollars and cents. The drivers are, of course, charging the equivalent in pounds, shillings, and pence. Taxi meters had to be altered late last year when increases in taxi fares were fixed. It was decided to convert the meters to dollars and cents rather than make a new rate in pounds and shillings and then, before July, change the meters again.