Access to Justice in Courts and Tribunals

Taylor James , ‘Representing Tenants’, (1995) 20(2) Alternative Law Journal 81–3. Similar sentiments have been expressed in relation to the Victorian tribunal: See Adler Ruth , ‘In Whose Interest?’ (1989) 14(5) Legal Service Bulletin 209–11; Treble Andrea White Lynda , ‘Victoria's RTT — Renovate or Demolish?’ (1993) 18(4) Alternative Law Journal 163–66.

See generally, Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1948 (NSW) s 65.

For an analysis of the prevalence of these tenancies today, see Dobell David , ‘Those Powerful “Protected” Tenants’ (1990) 15(6) Legal Service Bulletin 270–73.

Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (NSW) ss 23–30.

The Act does contain provisions that allow the Tribunal to revise an ‘excessive’ rent: See ss 44–52. Tenants have found it notoriously difficult to establish grounds for reduction of rent given the stringency of these criteria.

This Tribunal was introduced by the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal Act 2001 (NSW) to replace the Residential Tribunal which in turn replaced the Residential Tenancies Tribunal in 1998.

The term ‘landscape of disputes’ derives from the work of Galanter Marc . See, eg, ‘Why the Haves Come out Ahead: Speculation on the Limits of Legal Change’ (1974) Law & Society Review 95–160.

The figures for 1991, 1996 and 2001 are estimates because the Tribunal until 2003 did not keep separate data for public housing matters on a local area basis. Even if the numbers of Department of Housing applications in the Waverley local area deviated from the statewide norm in those years, the figures are highly unlikely to produce an error factor in excess of 1%.

It is important to note an exception: The granting of jurisdiction over rental bond disputes to the Consumer Claims Tribunal in 1977 finally allowed wider access to justice over these matters. Significantly, not one such dispute appeared in the Waverley Court files from 1971–1977.

See generally, Teubner Gunther (ed), The Juridification of Social Spheres (1987).

Genn H , Paths to Justice: What People Do and Think about Going to Law (1999).

See NSW Office of Fair Trading, ‘Residential Tenancy Law Reform: Options Paper’, (2005).