Whangārei District Court.
Photo: Google Maps

Lawyers are fearful of being attacked at court and want urgent improvements to courthouse designs to keep them safe.

In March 2023 Family Court lawyer Brintyn Smith was brutally attacked in the Whangārei courthouse lift, leaving him with multiple injuries – including a fractured sternum, nose and thyroid, extensive bruising to the face and a concussion.

In May, a lawyer was attacked in the Levin courthouse, and in early September an Auckland barrister waiting in a corridor at the Auckland District Court was punched to the ground, kicked in the head and stomped on.

The Law Association says many lawyers were scared of attacks due to the rising number of unpredictable and unruly people coming through the court system.

The physical design of most courthouses offered little to no protection, vice president Julie-Anne Kincade KC told Nine to Noon.

Lawyers in each district had been discussing how things could be improved, raising problems like tight spaces, a lack of security cameras in lifts and stairwells, and frosted glass in interview rooms so security guards could not monitor them, she said.

They were described as critical but easily fixable issues.

“That can add to the stress that everyone will always feel coming to court. If you add to that some of the financial issues people are having, maybe they have mental health issues, you really do have a tinderkeg [sic] of problems which are then sort of squashed together in one place.”

There were disparities between different court buildings around the country, she said – newer ones were state-of-the-art, while some had problems “peculiar to those buildings”.

Ministry of Justice officials seemed to be looking for a “one size fits all” solution, Kincade said.

“When we ask for what we think are small fixes like removing the frosting, we have [been] met with resistance – but I’m really hoping that resistance is being removed, and that will happen soon.”

Security and court staff were doing their best in “very difficult circumstances”, and helped run security inductions for lawyers at court buildings, she said.

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