Fathers' protests stir law society

By DEBORAH DIAZ

Auckland District Law Society is trying to broker a truce with protesters against Family Court lawyers.

Fathers' rights groups have staged weekend protests for months outside the houses of lawyers, judges and court-appointed psychologists, as well as targeting court buildings and MPs.

The "botherings", as organiser and men's advocate Jim Bagnall calls them, have frightened lawyers' children, led to the arrest of a woman for squirting a hose at protesters, and rocks have been thrown. Top Family Court judge Peter Boshier accused the men of pursuing vendettas because cases had not gone their way.

Protests have been held in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Havelock North. In the latest, in Auckland's Grey Lynn, a group set up with banners including a swastika and shouted "Give back our children". They accused lawyers' families of living off fathers' misery.

Auckland's law society has called a meeting for tonight to try "to progress things". President Gary Gotlieb said he told the protesters he would meet them if the protests paused, but he had to talk to society membership first.

The society accepted a forum was needed to identify and resolve real, if rare, miscarriages of justice in the Family Court, he said.
Retired judge Sir Thomas Thorpe had recommended the Government set up a Miscarriages of Justice Commission, and such a body might also look at Family Court cases.

But the protesters were going about things the wrong way, he said, with individual lawyers attacked simply for representing a client in acrimonious cases where a winner and a loser were inevitable.

He believed legal action against protesters was possible, but would prefer a constructive truce.
Protesters say the Family Court is biased and unfairly gives mothers custody, depriving men of contact with their children. They say it is too easy for a parent to make unsubstantiated allegations against the other.

Mr Bagnall said the protest group wanted a way for parents to resolve issues outside the courtroom, as less formal discussions could take some heat out of the process. The law society had been asked to consider acting as a go-between in such cases.

Mr Gotlieb said the society could not act on particular cases, but could advocate systemic changes.