Siemer v District Court North Shore

In the case of Siemer v District Court North Shore, the appellant, Jane Dinsdale Siemer, sought to appeal a finding of civil contempt made against her by Fitzgerald J in the High Court at Auckland, as well as the decision of the Disputes Tribunal North Shore rejecting her appeal against an order. The appeal also addressed the decision of the Attorney-General to strike out and dismiss Siemer's judicial review application, and to make a civil restraint order against her. Siemer sought to appeal the decisions of the Registrar in two related proceedings: firstly, the decision to decline her application to dispense with security for costs and to waive the scheduling fee for the appeal; and secondly, the decision to decline her application to waive the filing fee for her appeal. The legal issues before the court were whether Siemer had established that the appeal constituted a matter of genuine public interest, and whether the appeal would be unlikely to be commenced or continued unless the fee was waived.

The court found that Siemer had not established that the appeal constituted a matter of genuine public interest, or that the appeal would be unlikely to be commenced or continued unless the fee was waived. The court noted that most of the issues raised by Siemer's appeal would turn on the particular facts and would only affect the parties, notwithstanding that the question of whether the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 prevents the strike-out of a judicial review proceeding would be of some interest to other members of the public. The court further noted that the High Court's decision to make the Civil Restraint Order with extended effect against Siemer is one of obvious importance to her, and raises an issue of some public significance, namely the threshold for the making of such orders under the Senior Courts Act 2016. However, the court did not see how Siemer could satisfy the second aspect of the genuine public interest criterion, namely that her appeal "is unlikely to be commenced or continued unless the fee is waived."

In conclusion, the court dismissed Siemer's application for review of the Registrar's decision declining to waive the filing fee for this appeal. The filing fee should be paid within 20 working days of the date of this judgment.