Bill Cox has been threatened with contempt of court on several occasions, but the man who says he talks the language of farmers has won a few cases too.

'There are two kinds of language – the lawyers' language and the farmers' language and I'm a man's man who tells it like it is, even if the judges and the courts don't like some of the words I use,” says Bill, who is now using his extensive courtroom experience to help others.

Bill Cox and Vinay Deobhakta.

Together with former Whakatane barrister Vinay Deobhakta, he has established William Cox Consulting in Whakatane to offer their combined skills as 'McKenzie Friends” for farmers and others in trouble with the law.

Vinay says it is his pleasure to work with Bill.

'My aim is to set up the McKenzie Friends arm and drive it to a professional standard just as good, if not actually better, than most law firms.”

The two met when Bill was called as an expert witness for the case last September of Glen Crafar, (son of Alan Crafar of Crafar Farms) who faced charges brought by the Waikato Regional Council for allegedly breaching council's effluent rules.

'Vinay agreed to help Glen as a ‘McKenzie Friend', not as a lawyer. He sat beside him in court and helped him with his defence and won the case,” says Bill.

Vinay credits that success largely to Bill's ability to counter, in terms the jury could understand, the technical evidence presented by council's legal team.

'The jury were nodding when they listened to Bill, who appeared in court in a three piece suit and presented his evidence in a very professional and clear way which convinced the jury that effluent from Glen's herd could not have entered the waterways as council claimed.”

The case was Bill's first experience of the McKenzie Friend system and he was impressed. The movement arose from the 1970 UK divorce case McKenzie v McKenzie, in which a barrister, Ian Hanger, whose Australian law qualifications did not allow him to practise as a barrister in London, joined Levine McKenzie in court to assist as a ‘friend'. Since then the practice of permitting a McKenzie Friend - who may not be a lawyer - to help a defendant in court has become accepted in many countries, including New Zealand.

'A McKenzie Friend doesn't need to be a lawyer and can't address the court unless invited to by a judge, but can advise and direct a defendant who is representing themself,” says Bill.

It's a principle which appeals to Bill, who took to representing himself when his legal bills grew as his cases were being lost.

Bill, who with wife Naiyana and infant daughter Narisa live on a lifestyle block near Waihi, previously farmed near Te Aroha and operated a contracting business irrigating effluent from dairy factories and an abattoir onto farmland.

He also gave farmers expert advice on effluent disposal, as well as ploughing and contouring new pastureland.

It was through his contracting work that Bill often found himself in conflict with Environment Waikato (now Waikato Regional Council), resulting in many court appearances and significant legal bills.

While he didn't set out to break the rules, Bill considered many of the council's requirements to be unfair, if not ludicrous, and he believed they were making it hard for farmers and contractors like himself to operate their businesses.

'For instance, council set a limit which said no more than 200metres of top soil could be moved on a farm without obtaining a consent, which was crazy because you could move more than that in no time when ploughing or contouring a paddock, so I went to council and asked for consents for 300 farms – which they didn't like.”

Bill developed and patented a high pressure system to irrigate dairy factory and abattoir waste water on to pasture but council was concerned about possible leaching to waterways so he faced prosecution for many of those operations.

When it came to court cases Bill had difficulty finding lawyers who understood the practicalities of farming and what was happening on the land, so did his own research and finally represented himself. The result was that many judges came to appreciate Bill's straight talking (if not all of his language) and gained a clear understanding of his arguments, often ruling in his favour.

'In one case against council, the judge awarded me $40,000 in costs.”

Vinay admires Bill and what he has achieved.

'He even took a law firm down after Bill went through a tough matrimonial case. In fact Cox v Cox is now taught to law students.”

The costs of all that ligation were more than financial for Bill. He had been working round the clock, milking cows and operating the contracting business, had gone through a marriage break-up and the stress was beginning to tell.

'I hardly slept and my health was suffering.”

He sold the farm and moved to the Bay of Plenty to a more relaxed lifestyle with time to pursue his hobby of restoring old cars and Farmall tractors.

However, never one to slow down completely, Bill continues to run his contracting business and has expanded it to include the McKenzie Friend work with Vinay Deobhakta.

'We are happy to assist anyone with almost any case in which we think we have some expertise to offer to make sure everyone has their day in court and a fair hearing. We can do this at a fraction of what it costs to employ a lawyer.”
As is to be expected, Bill makes no apology for competing with lawyers for work and under-cutting their charges.

'In this economic environment where most people are struggling financially, I don't see any lawyers cutting their fees, so we are happy to offer a service to those who can't afford a lawyer – and I'm pretty confident we will do a good job.”

He and Vinay also have plans to run courses to train others to become McKenzie Friends.

Bill says he has no concerns that Vinay is facing his own court case in Tauranga on December 3 to answer a charge associated with trips he made to India when bankrupt. Even though the bankruptcy was not associated with his legal practice, the New Zealand Law Society has refused to renew Vinay's practicing certificate until after the bankruptcy case has been through the courts.
Vinay, who had an extensive and high profile law career, left legal practice to embark on a career as an entrepreneur which included helping Indians immigrate to New Zealand. However, Vinay has had an on-going battle with Immigration New Zealand after he claimed there was corruption in its New Delhi office and it was to assist India police with their inquiries that he returned to India after being judged bankrupt – something he should not have done without permission.

'After my case is resolved, I will be entitled to apply for my certificate. However the only reason I want the certificate is to be able to appear in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Courts in cases which involve complex and sometimes sensitive issues of law. For example, I have been approached by a former client to argue some very interesting but complex issues of Maori Customary Title in the higher Courts but I can't, which is very frustrating. Apart from cases like that one – quite frankly, I reckon 90 per cent of the court work in the country could work well with McKenzie Friends.”

Like Bill, Vinay believes there is room in New Zealand for the greater use of the McKenzie Friend system, particularly in defending farmers facing environmental charges brought by well-funded regional councils.
He says his cost for defending Glen Crafar amounted to less than $10,000, but a full legal defence would have cost about $50,000.

Hopeful of regaining his practicing certificate, Vinay is nonetheless keen to continue to support and promote the McKenzie Friends concept as he believes it will have an important place in New Zealand law, especially given the changes being made to legal aid.

'I believe Bill and I complement each other well as Bill has the straight-talking, common sense approach, while I bring professional experience and knowledge of the law,” says Vinay.