Someone lives in a cave!?

But Mark, they won their case...after how many years? If the Family Court was 'working well' then this case would have not ever got as far as it did!


Note in the article that Professor Mark Henaghan, Dean of the Otago Law Faculty, states that “there is not one shred of evidence that the Family Court is not working really, really well”.

I would argue that there is plenty of practice-based evidence (including suicide by some Family Court Consumers) that illustrates how poorly the Family Court works, and that there is in fact not one shred of outcome evidence to back up Professor Henaghans lofty claim.

Henaghan trips himself up in the article when he admits that there has never been a cost – benefit analysis of the Family Court – yet he takes a positivist position anyway.

No wonder Henaghan is dodging me to debate these issues -he knows that he can’t win the debate.
ODT Article: http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/261942/family-court-cuts-questioned
Feel free to give the Professor a call or send him an email, and set him straight:
Telephone: (0 3) 479 8856
Email: mark.henaghan@otago.ac.nz

Update 25/6/13:
A Family Court Consumer has challenged Professor Mark Henaghan on his comment above:

Dear Professor Henaghan

You are quoted in the ODT as saying “there is not one shred of evidence that the Family court is not working really, really well”.
I would like to provide you with ample evidence that the NZ Family court is not working well. Our Family endured a two-year Family court experience from hell. We won the case, but immediately fled the country, as we had no confidence in the integrity of the NZ Family court. In our experience, the NZ Family court constantly ignored NZ law, and constantly disregarded the rule of law in very significant ways. Our son killed himself soon after illegal Family court bullying. He was never accused of doing anything wrong, but was threatened with imprisonment in the Family court, simply because a judge wanted to frighten him. Even though we won the case brought against us, we strongly believe that the judges presiding in our case should be imprisoned for their constant illegal misconduct.
I challenge you to read our court experiences, which are on pg 6-9 of this document:
http://bit.ly/ourNZexperience 
I am not a qualified lawyer, but I did attend law school many years ago – I changed course a year before finishing an LLB degree, and completed a Masters degree in Economics instead. I did learn enough about the rule of law however, to know that the NZ Family court case against my wife and I and our two sons was an atrocity. The judge in question has since been made Chief Justice of the NZ Family court.
I wonder whether you have the courage of your convictions to read our experiences and make comment. Remember, my wife and I won the case brought against us in the Family court – but we fled NZ as we were terrified of a corrupt, out-of-control Family court. We feared for our liberty. We feared a court that threatened to imprison us illegally. We now spend a lot of our time informing people in positions of influence around the world, of the true nature of New Zealand’s Family court. The judicial standards in the NZ Family court in our experience would be at the level that I would expect in corrupt courts in countries such Somalia or Zimbabwe.