The Ministry of Justice’s remote participation project, which spent more than a year rated as unachievable, has moved from a red Gateway rating to amber. That is real progress, and it deserves credit. But for a business chasing a debt, fighting a contract dispute or defending an employment claim, a better risk rating is not a faster hearing. The improvement is on paper. The courtroom is still waiting.
A genuine upgrade, backed by strong words
The project expands audio-visual links across courts and tribunals, so lawyers, witnesses and parties can appear remotely. A June 2026 Gateway review found the business case “presents a compelling case for investment and is strongly supported by all sector agencies and the judiciary, without exception”. Reviewers rarely write like that. Cabinet approved the business case in August and told the ministry to start design work under a “phase 0” running to mid-2027. Deputy secretary Paula Knaap said that, in line with Treasury procedures, no new funding will be considered until the project produces three more business cases and controls.
That condition is the right call. A project that was red should have to earn its next dollar. It also sets the timetable: design finishes in mid-2027, and full deployment across a secure network of courts and devices sits some way beyond that.
More than a year rated unachievable
The recovery matters because the starting point was so poor. The project was rated red in a May 2025 review, and of 10 high-risk government digital investments assessed that year it was the only one rated red. Technology selection, originally due in early 2025, slipped, and an early business case deadline was missed.
The pattern was familiar across justice IT. In 2025, consultancy Target State argued the separate Te Au Reka digitisation programme’s early struggles reflected scope creep and a lack of strategic sequencing, trying to deliver everything at once rather than proving value in stages. Phase 0 and staged business cases look like the ministry has learned that lesson.
The caseload didn’t wait
While the project sat in red, the queue grew. The ministry’s 2025 draft long-term insights briefing showed insolvency applications more than doubled, up 121% to 2,229 new cases between June 2022 and June 2025. New District Court civil cases rose 72% to 25,835 over the same period.
Any technology the ministry delivers has to absorb that growth, not merely hold the line. The legal framework is moving too, with the ministry reviewing the Courts (Remote Participation) Act 2010 with a view to a new enabling Act and court rules setting which events default to remote hearings.
Delay is a working-capital problem
For business, slow courts are not an abstract justice issue. Every month a disputed invoice sits unresolved is cash tied up, provisions held, and management time spent. In September 2025, then-Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann warned that High Court changes were unlikely to reduce delays in the short term, and that commercial parties turning away from the courts risked damaging the development of commercial law.
That same month, Simpson Grierson partner Ben Upton said average civil waits in Auckland exceeded 600 days, adding that “we can’t say we have a good, fast, commercial court system”. Nearly two years to resolve a dispute is long enough for a creditor’s counterparty to go under, which turns a recoverable debt into a liquidation claim.
Te Au Reka shows what delivery looks like
The more encouraging signal comes from the paperwork side. Te Au Reka, the separate $170 million digitisation programme, goes into Christchurch and Ashburton Family Court registries in late November, with all Family Court locations on the system by the end of May 2027. Scoping for civil and criminal jurisdictions is complete and detailed design has begun.
David Goddard KC, the programme’s judicial lead, says it has met “the normal challenges of any major multi-year IT project” but is on track. Concrete dates are what turn a recovery story into a delivery story.
What business should plan for
The amber rating means the remote participation project is now heading in the right direction, under the kind of Treasury discipline taxpayers should expect on a troubled IT build. It does not mean courts get faster this year, or probably next. The three business cases are the real milestones to watch, alongside whether Te Au Reka’s civil rollout follows the Family Court timetable.
Until then, firms should treat court delay as a fixed cost of doing business. Tighter credit terms, earlier security over debts, and dispute clauses that point to arbitration or mediation are cheaper than waiting for the network to be built.
Sources
- RNZ: From red alert to amber for court tech project (2026-10-16)
- RNZ: More tech projects struggling as govt tries to overhaul ‘siloed’ system (2026-08-12)
- Law News: Te Au Reka is on track to deliver simpler and more accessible justice (2026-10-12)
- Ministry of Justice: The Future Operation of the Courts and Justice Services (draft Long-Term Insights Briefing 2025) (2025)
- Ministry of Justice: Timely Justice Action Plan
- Target State: NZ digital lessons – what businesses can learn from Te Au Reka’s setbacks (2025-08-18)
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