Many ACC claimants who have been denied compensation are facing "a very serious situation" because of a growing backlog of appeal cases in district courts, a New Zealand Law Society representative says.
Don Rennie, of Wellington, who convenes the society's ACC committee, said many of the appeals had resulted from cost-cutting policy changes within ACC.
Injured people whose ACC compensation claims had been turned down faced a particularly difficult situation if they also did not qualify for social welfare support because a partner was already working.
Wellington lawyer John Miller and he recently met senior Ministry of Justice officials to discuss backlog-related concerns.
Mr Rennie now hopes "something is going to be done that will help to resolve the issue".
Commentators have noted there were two full-time and several part-time judges hearing appeals through the Accident Compensation Appeals District Court Registry, but one full-time judge had recently retired, reducing the judicial workforce.
"It's pretty obvious that we're going to need more judges to dispose of the cases that are already in the system," he said.
He was also concerned further mooted changes in the legal aid system could also disadvantage ACC claimants by reducing access to funds they needed to make appeals.
"It's extremely important, otherwise they'll lose their rights altogether," he said.
Dunedin ACC campaigner Denise Powell says some long-term ACC claimants have been hit with a "double whammy" by having their ACC cover withdrawn and then facing lengthy delays to have appeals heard in court.
ACC general manager Dr Keith McLea said, in terms of "cost cutting", ACC was "completely focused" on making decisions that were in line with three objectives.
These were "helping our clients get back to work or independence", meeting the requirements of ACC's legislation and "ensuring long-term financial sustainability".
ACC clients normally reached the court only if their requests were "not only declined by us but also subsequently declined by an independent expert reviewer".
ACC stood by its "record of success" in district courts, and ACC processes produced the right decisions in the "overwhelming majority of cases", Dr McLea said.
Recent Ministry of Justice figures show the court has 1446 "live" cases before it, and 9900 applications for review were last year lodged with Disputes Resolution Services Ltd, which handles ACC reviews.
Long-term ACC claimant numbers dropped from 15,271 to about 12,500 during the 2009-10 financial year, and ACC plans to cut at least 1150 more clients from its long-term list by mid next year.
Ministry tribunals national manager Wayne Newall said the ministry was aware of the court registry's workload and understood the frustrations and concerns of appellants and their representatives.
The workload reflected both the growing number of appeals, and the "often highly complex nature and history of individual appeals".
Only 80 live cases were ready to be heard by a judge and, in most of the remaining cases, applicants or their lawyers had not yet completed filing submissions.
Of the live cases, 687 were more than a year old and were still incomplete.
The ministry expected to be able to address "judicial capacity" issues in coming months and to ensure those affected and ready to proceed could have their cases heard in a "reasonable time frame", Mr Newall said.
