Lawyers bring own audio equipment to run-down Rotorua District Court, say upgrades needed

Source: Radio New Zealand

A building which ties up the hands of justice – that’s how many feel about Rotorua’s courthouse which has suffered years of delays to a slated redevelopment.

Rotorua District Court ranked the lowest in the nation for satisfaction with its facilities in this year’s Ministry of Justice Court User Survey.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said things started off badly for people as soon as they arrived at the courthouse.

Jurors, victims, defendants and witnesses must all go through a single entrance.

“Everyone has to individually go through security which takes an enormous amount of time, so on a day … where it’s pouring with rain, people are sometimes standing outside in the rain for two hours.”

Rotorua criminal lawyer Scott Mills pointed out the many problems with this arrangement.

“On Monday mornings the jury line stretches right back to the corner. There’s simply nowhere for people to go. Witnesses, defendants and complainants are shoulder-to-shoulder in the same waiting areas, fights have broken out more than once.”

It was no better once people got inside.

“It just doesn’t meet standards, for example if you have a disabled defendant they can’t get to the cells – the stair access is really steep and narrow – so there’s no way people with mobility issues can be placed in the cells when they potentially should be,” said Gordon.

Because a new building kept being promised, Gordon said no one would spend money on proper fixes or upgrades.

It was so bad the lawyers bought in audio equipment themselves just so jurors could hear video evidence properly.

“The court system and the police system don’t work together very well, so the DVDs we provide the court, they can’t turn the volume up so the jury can’t hear what the witness is saying,” she said.

She said Rotorua should have another judge to cope with the level of cases, but there’s nowhere to put a judge and nowhere they could hear cases.

Gordon said this meant judges were bailing people who they might otherwise not, and people were waiting years to get justice.

“Some decisions that judges are making are becoming entirely focused on the fact that someone might have to spend three years in custody before they get a trial and that that’s not ok, and it’s definitely not ok,” she said.

“It’s a democratic right that people get tried in front of a jury of their peers and our courthouse doesn’t serve any of the participants.”

Victim advocate Louise Nicholas supported people going through the court in Rotorua and said it was not a pleasant place.

“I’m sitting there supporting a survivor and I’m having to kill cockroaches, and you are sitting in the courtroom and you look on the wall and there’s a cockroach running up the wall,” she said.

Nicholas said when vulnerable victims were facing an intense and anxious time, they were put into a hot room to give evidence via CCTV, with distracting noises just on the other side of the door.

“When you’ve got people walking up and down a corridor, they are loud, we’re having to stop – we’ve had judges actually bring out the registrar and say, ‘remove yourself, we are actually in trial here’,” she said.

She thought it was time to get a new courthouse building up and running.

“Justice really isn’t getting served here, because of that building,” she said.

Courts Minister Nicole McKee said she was well aware of the challenges at the Rotorua courthouse and the Ministry of Justice was developing plans for a future rebuild to ensure Rotorua had a modern, fit-for-purpose courthouse.

“Across the country, we are progressing upgrades and new builds for a number of courthouses. However, financial constraints mean we cannot do every project at once.

“In Rotorua, the ministry has already purchased land for a proposed new courthouse and is working with the local council to secure resource consent in early 2026. This will allow the ministry to move quickly once funding is available.”

But there was no money for it in Budget 25, despite land already being purchased and ministerial support for a property partnership project to build and maintain a new courthouse being signalled to investors at the NZ Infrastructure Investment Summit in March this year.

McKee said Rotorua was only one of several courthouses nationally that needed attention and emphasis had gone to courts in Auckland.

“Rotorua is on the list… it’s very, very much on our radar,” she said.

RNZ asked if working with cockroaches climbing up the walls was ok but McKee said those claims were unsubstantiated.

“That’s the first I’ve heard about it, is from you, however, I’ve lived in Rotorua, there’s cockroaches everywhere,” she said.

Mayor of Rotorua, Tania Tapsell said the community had waited too long for what was considered by many an urgent and necessary investment in a new courthouse.

“Rotorua is one of the busiest regional courts in the country and handles complex cases from a large wider region, we need to be showing that we take our justice facilities seriously and now is the time for the government to action that,” she said.

McKee said the government did want to do better for Rotorua and get it a new courthouse.

But critics said everyone was still waiting for the money to make it happen.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand