The growing number of people representing themselves in the country's civil courts is a "warning light'' about the need for reform, Bridgette Toy-Cronin says.
Ms Toy-Cronin has completed a PhD in law, focusing on people appearing in the civil courts without a lawyer, and will graduate from the University of Otago today, in a ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.
She was "thrilled'' to have finished her thesis in about three years, and to be graduating.
The university humanities division has listed her thesis as "exceptional'', and next year she will be taking up a post as a postdoctoral fellow in the university's Legal Issues Centre.
Her thesis focused on "Keeping up appearances: Accessing New Zealand's Civil Courts as a litigant in person'' and was funded through a New Zealand Law Foundation scholarship.
Hundreds of people were representing themselves in the country's civil courts each year, but there was a "contradiction'' underlying the access of "litigants in person'' to the non-criminal courts, she said.
"The courts promise a forum to vindicate citizens' rights.
"Without this forum, their rights are empty, merely occurring on the books and not in reality.''
But the courts did not have the resources to hear all the claims.
"So, to appear to provide justice and control their process, the courts must both promise and limit access simultaneously.''
The reality was that people going to court without a lawyer struggled to "access the courts in a meaningful way''.
This was mainly because there were "so many complexities and conflicts that cannot be easily overcome by a litigant advocating their own cause''.
Some lawyers viewed self-represented litigants as obsessed or slightly crazy, but the reality was more complex.
Some people had little choice but to represent themselves or accept what they sometimes saw as an unacceptable situation.
Many people assumed that if they had to appear in civil court over a child custody matter or were defending themselves in a civil suit, the system would ensure they were adequately represented.
But that was not the reality, partly because of restrictions in legal aid provision, and there was clearly "stress on the civil justice system''.
Her research investigated why people litigated without a lawyer, and how the lawyers, judges and court staff "perceive them and respond to them''.
Her research drew on interviews with litigants (34), judges (13), lawyers (16) and court staff (8), as well as observations and review of court documents.
She argues that reforms within the court system alone could not offer a complete answer.
Also needed were broader social responses, that looked to wider policies that addressed inequalities of wealth and promoted social justice.
A record five Otago law students are graduating with doctorates today, the most Otago law students to gain doctorates at the same ceremony.
