Public Defender: Judge urges replacing legal lingo with plain English

PUBLIC DEFENDER: This top judge has had it with legal mumbo-jumbo, urging those who hear cases to help non-experts understand what’s going on.

Donna and Robert Colless, pictured with daughter Jordyn and niece Lucy (in ring), say they paid a pool company a deposit of more than $7000 four months ago but pool work hasn't started.

THE state’s consumer court will ditch a “bewildering array” of legal terms, forms and procedures to make it easier for people to put forward their cases and be heard.

The head of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal — which also covers anti-discrimination, privacy and guardianship — wants tribunal members to stop using phrases such as “interlocutory application” and instead use “request”; rather than say “given leave”, just say “allowed”.

The plain-speaking push is revealed in the new NCAT annual report.

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In it, tribunal president Robertson Wright writes: “I am looking forward to working with members and registry staff to simplify our procedures and processes across the tribunal so that people coming to the tribunal no longer face a bewildering array of words with which they are not familiar, forms that are difficult to fill out or practices which inhibit their ability to put forward their cases and be heard.”

Justice Robertson Wright says ordinary English needs to take the place of the “bewildering array of words”.

NCAT was formed in 2014 as part of a simplicity agenda — a one-stop shop replacing 22 bodies — and the move to straightforward English follows the launch in September of a series of online videos to help people represent themselves at NCAT.

It dealt with more than 82,000 hearings in 2015-16, including 57,000 in the consumer division. In your correspondent’s opinion, there has been a notable improvement in the way members communicate with applicants and respondents.

This includes providing much clearer instructions before dispatching opposing sides to conciliation.

They are told that the face-to-face negotiation is their chance to keep control of the outcome rather than have one they might not like imposed by the tribunal.

They are advised to listen to each other’s evidence then make business-like solutions to the dispute.

“We want more people to feel in control of the process and confident in the result.”

Donna Colless of Toon­gabbie went to NCAT after she was unable to resolve a dispute with the company she hired to build a backyard pool for her family.

She had lost faith in the company and, while it had not done any work at the site, under the terms of the contract she faced having to pay as much as $11,000 — 25 per cent of the project price.

She came to NCAT willing to pay the builders’ costs for designs and bills, which she figured to be as much as $4500.

Mrs Colless had not expected to be sent to conciliation. After testy negotiations that at one point looked set to fail, an agreement was struck for her to pay no more than $5000.

She said she didn’t think such a deal could have been done without NCAT because communication had broken down.

Donna Colless is trying to get the pool finished by Christmas.

“It could have been worse,” she said.

NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton said one in five people do nothing when they have a legal problem.

“We want more people to feel in control of the process and confident in the result,” Ms Upton said.

“We know that unresolved legal problems rarely go away and often get worse. So services like NCAT are crucial for people to help resolve everyday legal issues quickly and easily.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Colless is hoping to find a pool company that can do the job before Christmas.

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