New Zealand’s McKenzie Friend ‘pioneer’: Friend or foe?

The self-proclaimed “first McKenzie Friend Specialist” in New Zealand, Vinay Deobhakta is a former lawyer setting up a training programme aimed at producing professional McKenzie Friends. McKenzie Friends are support people for self-represented litigants in court - they are not lawyers, but can sit with litigants in court to support them. However, Deobhakta did not leave the law profession out of choice - he was in fact struck off for misconduct in 2014. 95bFM journalist Caitlin McIlhagga speaks to Deobhakta to try understand how he is reconciling his past with his current work setting up the McKenzie Friends training programme.

To learn more about the relationship McKenzie Friends have with the Family Court, check out the other interviews Caitlin did with two experts in family law here.