COSTLINESS OF JUSTICE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 184, 17 August 1871, Page 7

COSTLINESS OF JUSTICE.

The cost for the recovery of small amounts in the Kesident Magistrates' Courts of the Colony h*ve become the subject of general complaint. They are, in fact, so enormour, class of claimants cannot afford to risk an enforcement of their demands, simply because the charges for bringing a claim into Court is out of all proportion to the amount for which judgment i 3 sought to be obtained in a .Resident Magistrate's Court, as in the higher Courts, does not always result in his yetting his claim satisfied. There is an old saying that one cannot take the breaks of a Highlandman, and a dozen judgements against a debtor will not enable a plaintiff to get his money if the debtor has not the mean* to pay it. Wit)) such uncertainty, coupled with the heavy charges for bringing a small claim into Court, many a dishonest debtor escapes, and is defrauded. As an instance of excessive charges made in "a Resident Magistrate's Court, we extract the following " Court Cases" from the Marlborou<_ r h " Press" of the 20th instant: — Noseda v. Herbly — - claim £1, costs £l2s; Cailcton v. Curtis — claim £5 10s, costs £14s; Leary v. Paton — claim £6 16, coats £2 15; Bank of New Zealand v. Miller — claim £24t, costs £3 5s ; Mowatt v. .Tones— claim 15s, costs £1 Bs. Now these costs against poor men are r.«ndy so excessive and so arbitarily raised, that common justice cries out for a reduction of such monstrous charts. The costs for the recovery of debt? in our law courts are, we believe, fised by the Colonial Government, and \re can only look upon such excessive imposis as a covert and unfair metl.od of raising a revenue at the expend of unfortunate debtors. We are told by one of our legal practitioners, thnr in some cafes — bating professional fees— that a debt claim ra.iv be established

in any of the Supreme Courts of ths Colony at a less cost than when taken into one of the lower Courts. The difficulty is who s'lall seek a remedy. If the stipendiary magistrate* of the Colony were to represent t'.ie gross injustice of the charges, owin^ to which many poor debtors are greatly oppressed, they would simply receive ft snubbing for their attempted intcr{ervjiice. The complaint, •we think, should come from tho members of rh« legal profession representing it to the judges, but they do not appear to move in the matter. Some time ago^f the Dunediu Chamber of Commerce consented to make representations to Crown Law Officers, but whether they ever did so, or doing it, what ansvrer they received, we have never learned.

•" Grey mouth Star."